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RURAL LIFE IN 
LITCHFIELD COUNTY 



RURAL LIFE IN 
LITCHFIELD COUNTY 



BY 

CHARLES SHEPHERD PHELPS 



PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF 

THE LITCHFIELD COUNTY 
UNIVERSITY CLUB 

NORFOLK, CONNECTICUT 
I917 



Copyright, 191 7, by 

Charles Shepherd Phelps 



MAY 21 1917 



©CI.A467058 



o 



This volume forms part of a series published under 
the auspices of the Litchfield County University Club, 
and in accordance with a proposition made to the club 
by one of its members, Carl Stoeckel of Norfolk, Conn. 

Howard Williston Carter, 

Secretary. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

i Topography and Soil 3 

11 First Settlers and Early Home Life . . .14 

in Field and Garden Crops in the Early Days . 32 

iv Farming Tools and Implements 43 

v Fruits and Fruit Growing 51 

vi Cattle and the Dairy 64 

vii Sheep and Wool 81 

viii The Modern Farm 98 

ix Country Life, Old and New 108 

x Country Community Progress 119 

xi A Pioneer in Agricultural Education . . .130 



TO 

THE FARM HOMES NESTLED AMONG THE 

HILLS OF OLD LITCHFIELD, THIS 

BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY 

DEDICATED 



RURAL LIFE IN 
LITCHFIELD COUNTY 



CHAPTER I 




TOPOGRAPHY AND SOIL 

IN the northwest corner of the State of 
Connecticut are twenty-six towns, one for 
each letter in the alphabet, and taken to- 
gether they constitute Litchfield County. 
It is the largest county in the State, the 
area being about 885 square miles. It was organized 
in 175 1 as the fifth county in the State, although it had 
been settled many years before. Within the bounds of 
the county are found the highest land, the greatest lake 
area, the most rugged scenery, and some of the richest 
agricultural lands of the State. The highest point of 
land was for a long time a matter of dispute, but that 
designation is now given to Bear Mountain, in the town 
of Salisbury. This mountain reaches an elevation of 
2355 feet above sea level, and there are a number of 

C3] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

other near-by points which come close to the two-thou- 
sand mark. While it was at first supposed that Norfolk 
contained the highest point of land in the county, the 
topographical surveys made at the instigation of Rob- 
bins Battell gave the palm to Bear Mountain. Later 
Mr. Battell caused to be erected a monument to mark 
the spot, thus permanently designating the highest point 
of land in the State. 

Some of the cultivated lands of the county lie at an 
elevation of 1200 to 1500 feet, while much of the best 
agricultural lands are at a considerable elevation, 
notably in the towns of Goshen, Litchfield, Morris, 
Bridgewater and Washington. The fact that a settle- 
ment was begun on a hilltop made very little difference 
to the settlers, for they could produce only about enough 
to supply the home demands and there was little travel 
from town to town. But now the question of marketing 
crops has become a more serious one to many of the 
hilltop farmers, for they are sometimes at loss to know 
what can be grown that will market to the best advan- 
tage. Improved highways, however, are slowly solving 
this problem, and this, together with the automobile, 
will soon make a distance of five to eight miles, for the 
hauling of crops to market, seem but a slight drawback. 

The mountains on the western border of the county 
are often spoken of as the foothills of the Berkshires 
and are of the same general type, being thickly wooded 

CO 



TOPOGRAPHY AND SOIL 

with fine forests on the lower slopes and rocky and 
covered with scrub oak and yellow pine towards the 
summits. Many elevated areas probably never will 
be of much agricultural value except for forestry, be- 
cause of their inaccessibility and the shallowness of the 
soil. On the mountains that are frequently burned 
over there are often tracts of the native low blueberry 
and the huckleberry, not perhaps regarded as a strictly 
agricultural product, but one that certainly adds to the 
income of the hill towns. 

The soil in general is what is known as glacial drift 
or till. There is ample evidence of glacial action 
throughout the county, in the polished ledges cut with 
furrows, in the smooth boulders scattered everywhere, 
in the steep-sided kettle holes, and especially in the uni- 
versal mix-up of the soils. But no outcome of the 
glacial forces adds more to the beauty of the country 
than the numerous lakes. There are over a thousand 
lakes in Connecticut, and of these Litchfield County has 
the greatest surface, Bantam Lake, lying in the towns 
of Litchfield and Morris, being the largest. In the 
town of Salisbury lie the Twin Lakes, which, if they 
had not built a barrier and divided themselves into 
two lakes, would be almost as large as Bantam. In the 
town of Warren is Lake Waramaug, in Kent are the 
Spectacle Ponds, in Canaan and Norfolk is Lake Wan- 
gum, and in Winchester is Highland Lake. The lakes 

C5] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

of the single town of Salisbury cover nearly 1700 acres 
and afford natural beauty spots as well as popular sum- 
mer resorts. 

In many places in the county will be found extensive, 
low, peaty tracts of land, that once represented lake 
areas, but which have been filling in for thousands of 
years by the slow growth and decay of vegetation. In 
some instances such areas still have a small lake or pond 
near the center, as in the case of Beeslick Pond in Salis- 
bury. During the slow processes of time, water-weeds 
crept into these old lakes, peat moss and bushes reached 
out from the shallow water at the edge, and in the 
course of many years the lake was transformed into 
a mere bog, rich in all kinds of botanical treasures. 
After many more years, as the outcome of changes due 
to tillage and drainage, it may have become a good 
piece of mowing land. 

In mountainous regions there are sure to be brooks, 
and wherever there are mountain brooks there ravines 
will be found. In the hills of Litchfield County are 
found some of the wildest, most picturesque ravines 
in New England. Kent Falls ravine is of peculiar 
beauty, carved as it is partly out of white limestone. On 
the banks and limestone ledges grow the most graceful 
of ferns— the Cystopteris bulbifera, or bladder fern; 
while the abundance of the Camptosorus rhizophyllus, 
or walking fern, is a delight to the botanist. 

[6] 



TOPOGRAPHY AND SOIL 

Of Sage's Ravine I will give two comments made by 
Henry Ward Beecher. "If this were in Colorado a 
safe path would be cut along the bank and it would be 
the show place of the region." "Never have I climbed 
a more wild or beautiful ravine. It is dangerous, too." 
Those who have followed it to its head, clinging to the 
roots of trees, along the wall at the foot of the falls, to 
cross the little side ravine, will appreciate the danger of 
the climb, but lovers of the beautifully wild will find 
above the falls even more beauty than below. 

The principal rivers of the county are the Housa- 
tonic, the Naugatuck, the Shepaug and their tributaries, 
which drain the county from north to south, and the 
Farmington and its tributaries on the east. The larger 
rivers offer many advantages to the manufacturers and 
have afforded the natural resources for building up 
prosperous towns and boroughs that have developed a 
variety of industries. This diversity of industries has 
had an important bearing on the agricultural develop- 
ment of the county, for the most prosperous agriculture 
is always found near good markets. In the past many 
of the smaller streams afforded power for operating 
numerous small industries that were closely linked with 
the agriculture of the county, such as tanneries, woolen 
mills, wagon shops, cheese-box factories, nail and 
scythe works and so forth. The concentration of these 
various industries into big central plants has changed 

C 7 3 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

the entire life of many rural towns. The time will 
again come when these numerous small waterfalls will 
be harnessed to provide electric power and light for 
many farm homes, and thus they will again be of value. 

Of the forests that clothed this region when it was 
first settled scarcely a vestige remains. Until recently 
there was a bit of what might be called primeval forest 
in Colebrook, but even this has not been spared the 
woodman's axe. On the mountains there are a few 
spots too steep and inaccessible to be lumbered, and here 
we still find a few forest giants. But the hills are cov- 
ered with pine, chestnut and birch, in spite of frequent 
cuttings and forest fires. Wherever we go up and down 
throughout the county, there is forest beauty every- 
where. Perhaps the most notable example of the 
preservation of the stately monarchs of the forest is to 
be found on the Calhoun estate in Cornwall. Here 
may be seen a beautiful grove of pines, many trees of 
which tower majestically a hundred feet or more in 
height and have trunks three to four feet in diameter. 
A botanist, rushing through the county on the train, 
noted the abundance of paper birches. "It is a good 
country," he commented, "for paper birches do not 
thrive on poor soil." This is true, and though the soils 
of the county are extremely varied, yet the strictly agri- 
cultural lands are second to none. 

The soils of the hill country, and in general those 

[8] 



TOPOGRAPHY AND SOIL 

outside the river valleys, are composed of glacial drift 
varying in fineness from coarse boulders and small peb- 
bles down to fine sand and silty clays, these materials 
being mixed in widely varying proportions. These soils 
were, without doubt, formed by the slow grinding, 
scraping and pushing action of powerful glaciers, which 
in prehistoric times moved slowly over the whole region 
in a southwesterly direction. In many instances the 
powerful movement of the glaciers broke off and car- 
ried along massive boulders which lodged on the higher 
hills, and many fields were left so densely studded with 
small boulders as to make plowing almost impossible. 
In general, there is one type of soil on most of the 
higher lands of the county. This soil has been formed 
by the breaking down of rocks of granitic type. For 
many miles to the north the rocks are of the same gen- 
eral class as those on the higher lands of this county, 
and the bulk of the glaciated material is supposed to 
have been transported not more than ten to fifteen 
miles. When the granitic type of rock becomes weath- 
ered it makes a close-textured, clayey soil, which is usu- 
ally more or less studded with boulders. These soils 
are typical hay and pasture soils, and Litchfield County 
has always been noted as a good hay and grazing coun- 
try. Soils of this type are retentive of moisture and 
manure, and furnish liberal amounts of the elements 
needed in the growth of grasses, clover and most 

L9l 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

cereals. In the earlier days the county was noted for 
its fine quality of cheese and butter, as it is now for its 
milk, and much of these higher lands are dotted over 
with rich dairy farms. 

Another class of soils is that found in the river val- 
leys, known as the alluvial soils and the terrace gravel. 
In general these soil areas are limited in extent owing 
to the narrowness of the valleys. The lower portion of 
the valleys represents soils of a sandy loam type, gen- 
erally free from boulders. These are known as alluvial 
soils and are composed of gritty particles of rock which 
settled out of comparatively still water, while the finer, 
silty material was carried to the seas. Along the bor- 
ders of the valleys are found terraces of gravel and 
coarse sand which were formed by the rapidly moving 
waters. 

Following the great glacial epoch, our rivers were 
many times their present size, probably filling what now 
represents the river valleys. In some cases these river 
valleys were dammed by rock barriers, causing great 
lakes which later were drained out by the wearing away 
of the barriers. One of these ancient lakes seems to 
have covered the upper Housatonic valley, extending 
from a natural barrier at Falls Village to the northern 
part of Sheffield, Massachusetts, with a great arm ex- 
tending up the Blackberry River valley nearly to West 
Norfolk. Another, with little doubt, covered the 

on 



TOPOGRAPHY AND SOIL 

fertile Pomperaug valley at the south side of the county. 
Into these vast deep-water areas were washed fine par- 
ticles of rock materials from many sources, thus making 
soils with a great variety of mineral compounds and of 
a fine sandy texture. These soils now constitute some 
of the richest farm lands of the county. Near what 
must have been the shores of these old lake areas will 
be found deltas and beaches that constitute plateaus of 
coarser sandy or gravelly material. Such areas must 
have been formed by the swift inflowing rivers or the 
lashing waves. These soils are more sandy and less 
fertile than those that were formed beneath the deeper 
waters of the lake. 

In the larger river valleys, such as the Housatonic, 
the Farmington, the Naugatuck and the Shepaug, will 
also be found soil areas formed similarly to those just 
mentioned. The extent of these areas depends on the 
width of the valleys and the volume and the velocity of 
the water of those early times. For example, the 
Naugatuck River on the east, while it was probably 
many times as large as now, apparently always had a 
rapid movement, and flowed over very hard rocks, and 
these two factors tended to prevent the formation of a 
wide and fertile valley. On the other hand, the waters 
of the Housatonic represented a larger volume and 
passed over rock formations which were not especially 
hard, and so the conditions were more favorable for 

[»] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

carving out a wide river valley. These valley soils, al- 
though fine in texture, are rarely clayey, as the fine 
rock particles were carried to the sea. They are usu- 
ally composed of a great variety of minerals, depending 
of course on the variety of rock materials in their make- 
up. The absence of the finer clay silt, however, makes 
them more or less deficient in potassium compounds and 
often in calcium or lime compounds. Both of these 
elements, being somewhat soluble, were dissolved out 
and washed along to the sea. The porous texture 
of such soils causes them to leach manure and soluble 
plant food more readily than the heavier, finer textured, 
clayey soils of the hills. The warmth and natural dry- 
ness of the sandy soils cause the vegetable matter in 
them to decay and waste more rapidly than in the 
heavier soils of the uplands. If rightly managed, how- 
ever, and especially if kept well stored with decaying 
vegetable matter, they are the very best soils for many 
cultivated crops, such as corn, potatoes, root crop, 
tobacco, and many kinds of garden vegetables. 

A third type of soil, but smaller in area, is the lime- 
stone formation of the northwest section of the county. 
Much of the land in the towns of Canaan, Salisbury 
and Sharon is underlaid with the dolomitic form of 
limestone, and such soils are generally well supplied 
with lime and magnesia, and with this seems to be 
associated considerable fine material from the potash 

1^1 



TOPOGRAPHY AND SOIL 

and the phosphate bearing rocks. The soils of these 
towns, especially of Salisbury and Sharon, once produced 
fine crops of wheat and are still noted for producing 
luxuriant fields of oats and corn and hay. Clover 
thrives better in these soils than in the clay soils of the 
hills or the sandy soils of the valleys, and alfalfa has 
also been grown with considerable success in these lime- 
stone sections. 



C'3] 



CHAPTER II 




FIRST SETTLERS AND EARLY HOME LIFE 

HEN we write about the first settlers we 
naturally think of those brave white men 
and women who sought homes in "The 
Wilderness," as Litchfield County was 
designated in those early days. But be- 
fore we attempt to trace the gradual settlement and 
subduing of the wilderness it may be well to give a little 
time and thought to those who possessed the land even 
earlier. While the Indians of the East were, of neces- 
sity, of roving habits — the various bands moving from 
place to place as game became scarce — yet, according 
to the old records, they did have semi-permanent 
homes. Along the fertile river valleys their wigwams 
were clustered in the summer-time, and here the friable 
soil was doubtless "tickled" by the rude implements of 

C»4] 



FIRST SETTLERS AND EARLY HOME LIFE 

the industrious squaws and made to yield the meager 
harvests of corn, beans, or squash, to eke out, during 
the long, tedious winters, the uncertain supply of game. 
For many years after the coming of the white man, the 
Indian lived on the river bank, and forest edge, every 
now and then satisfying his desire for hunting by de- 
scending on some unsuspecting settler, as he wrought in 
his fields, and carrying him away captive, or killing him 
on the spot, if he attempted to escape. Some of those 
taken captive were fortunate enough to escape, but 
oftener they never came back. 

At Kent and at New Milford, there were quite large 
Indian settlements. In fact, the center of the so-called 
Indian kingdom was in this vicinity. The history of 
the Indians of Kent, and of the Moravian mission 
among the Indians of Sharon, is too well known to need 
repeating here. According to Barbour's history, there 
were about two hundred warriors in the town of New 
Milford at the time of its settlement in 1707. Here 
dwelt a powerful sachem whose palace was standing 
when the white man came. "On the inner walls of this 
palace [which were of bark with the smooth side in- 
wards] were pictured every known species of beast, 
bird, fish and insect, from the largest down to the small- 
est." At the falls below New Milford was a favorite 
fishing place of the Indians, great numbers of lampreys 
being taken there. As late as 1830, a few remnants of 

[■5H 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

the tribe annually claimed their fishing rights, which 
they never could be persuaded to sell. 

Now, though there are doubtless a few descendants 
from this ancient people, our thoughts are oftenest 
turned to them when, by chance, we are lucky enough 
to turn up an arrow point or find a rude flint chip. Some 
very fortunate persons have found banner stones, pieces 
of crude pottery or spear points of fine workmanship. 
One legacy they have left which should be preserved 
with the greatest care— the legacy of names. There is 
not a town where we do not find hill, lake or stream 
bearing an Indian name. Unfortunately there is a ten- 
dency to rechristen natural objects and too often to give 
them merely sentimental names, or names of temporary 
owners. As a nation we lack originality and imagina- 
tion in our names. We have found it easier to say North 
Pond than Keheketookosook, to say Lakeville Lake 
than Wononscopomoc, and yet how much more indi- 
vidualistic are the Indian names than those given by 
the white men! And if the Indian name be retained, it 
has the advantage claimed by the students of Greek and 
Latin — it belongs to a dead language and will not 
change; whereas Dow Hill is Dow Hill only as long 
as Dows live there— then it becomes in turn Huntington 
Hill, Parker Hill, Hale Hill, and Russell Hill, all 
within the memory of man. So let us forswear the 
questionable glory of giving our name to our village or 



FIRST SETTLERS AND EARLY HOME LIFE 

hill or stream and keep the name given it by the Indians, 
even if it has seventeen syllables. 

It would be interesting to know how the first white 
man came, whether afoot on a hunting excursion, or on 
horseback, or by canoe. When history was beginning, 
the makers were so occupied with the problems of just 
living that it probably never occurred to them that in 
the after years people would be glad to know the small- 
est details of their daily life. As soon as they had 
gotten a foothold and built up a few rough houses, they 
called a minister and voted a church. This, as being of 
the utmost importance, they carefully recorded. Little 
side lights on the life of those early times often shine 
from these records, as, for instance, a minister was 
called and settled and given as pay "twenty pounds law- 
ful money, forty cords of wood and the privilege of 
running the town cider mill"; or from the account of 
the settlement of another whose salary was to be paid 
in pork, corn, rye, peas, and other farm products. So 
strong was the power of the church and so important 
the minister in the town or State that nearly every town, 
in making allotments, set aside one or two or three 
for the use of the minister forever. In some towns one 
plot was given to "the first minister, his heirs and as- 
signs forever," and another "for the use of his succes- 
sors." 

As has ever been true, the march of civilization was 

D?] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

continually westward. When the western part of the 
State was settled much of the best land in the central 
valleys and the coast country was already fully occupied 
and a new field must be sought. That the land to which 
they were going was known as the almost impenetrable 
"Green Woods" country, that it comprised rockbound 
hills, and that its dense forests were alive with wild 
beasts and untamed savages, were but trifling obstacles 
to their progress. The original settlers of the county 
were several generations removed from the first emi- 
grants from England. Their fathers had known the 
hardships of wresting a livelihood from the unbroken 
forests, ever harassed by the cruel and treacherous sav- 
ages; and though the sons retained the sturdy qualities 
which go to the making of a real pioneer, yet some of 
the sterner and harsher peculiarities of the race had 
become softened or modified by the influence of time. 
A more tolerant and liberal spirit was manifested in 
religion, and later in politics, by the people of this 
county than in some other settlements in the State. 

The usual method of organizing a town was the sell- 
ing of a parcel of land at auction to a number of men, 
called patentees, who might take up the land them- 
selves or sell it to others. Cornwall was sold by the 
colony at Fairfield in 1738. It was laid out in "fifty 
three allotments and sold for fifty pounds per right." 
Canaan was sold at auction in New London. Goshen 



FIRST SETTLERS AND EARLY HOME LIFE 

was sold in New Haven, Norfolk at Middletown, Salis- 
bury at Hartford, Kent at Windham. There seem to 
be various conjectures as to the reason for these differ- 
ent places of sale. It is probable that the government 
allotted portions of the unsettled territory to the towns 
already established, that the people might have oppor- 
tunity to seek new homes, if they so desired, without the 
trouble and expense of a trip to the seat of the govern- 
ment. 

The earliest settlement in Litchfield County was 
doubtless in the town of Woodbury. There is a tradi- 
tion of the coming of these pioneers, that they were 
ordered by Governor Winthrop to follow the Pom- 
peraug River up eight miles from its junction with the 
Housatonic. But the Pomperaug looked so small that 
they thought they must be mistaken and kept on until 
they came to the Shepaug. This they followed up eight 
miles to what is now known as Roxbury Valley. As this 
did not quite agree with the description of the land they 
were seeking, they crossed over the wilderness and dis- 
covered from Good Hill the rich valley which was the 
object of their search. On this hill they kindled the 
first recorded home camp-fire, and then in the name of 
God set up their altars. As an expression of gratitude 
for their safe arrival on the borders of such a rich val- 
ley—their "promised land" — a devout deacon of the 
party "fell on his knees, leading to prayer the little band 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

of hardy adventurers, invoking the blessing of Heaven 
upon their enterprise, and praying that their posterity 
might be an upright and godly people to the land." 

A very different view of what constituted blessing 
and honor is said to have been voiced by another mem- 
ber of the party when he put up a petition praying "that 
his posterity might always be blessed with plenty of rum 
and military glory." 

On further investigation of the region the following 
day, they found much of the valley land free from un- 
derbrush as a result of the Indian custom of annual 
burning. A suitable location for the "home lots" being 
agreed upon, this tract was divided into parcels, the 
outlying areas being held for later division. "No one 
could have more than twenty-five acres for his home lot, 
and the poorest among them was entitled to ten ; so that 
a few rich could not control the township." This was 
the usual plan for these earlier settlements, and a very 
wise one it was. It provided for compact villages where 
defense against the Indians was effective. It laid the 
foundations for developing a sturdy race of yeomen, 
who, being land owners, would each feel an interest in 
the welfare of the new country, and it almost unwit- 
tingly provided the villages with the little open parks 
which are now so attractive in many of the country 
towns. The houses of the home lots were usually built 
around a hollow square enclosing the common. When 

£20] 



FIRST SETTLERS AND EARLY HOME LIFE 

this was first set aside it was the common home pas- 
ture, so to speak, and upon it ranged all the livestock 
of the community. At evening the stock was driven 
into this common and tethered or fenced there for 
safety from Indians or wild beasts. This custom of 
letting the livestock run at common gave rise to fre- 
quent disputes concerning the ownership of such ordi- 
nary stock as sheep, pigs and cattle, until the town fa- 
thers decreed that each owner should have a registered 
ear mark. These were duly recorded, and in many a 
quaint volume of town records bound in pigskin may 
one read as follows: 

"John Bird's ear mark for his creatures is a cross on 
the off ear taken out." 

"Hezikier Culver's ear mark for his creatures is a 
half penny in the underside of the near ear." 

"Saml Smedley's ear mark for his creatures is a hole 
in each ear." 

"Samual Root, his ear mark for his creatures is a 
cross in the off ear and a half penny in the underside of 
the same." 

As the marks on record increased the style of ihe 
marking became more complicated, as indicated by the 
following: 

"Nathan Mitchel, his ear mark for his creatures is a 
cross cut on the off ear and a slit in the cross of the near 
ear and a slit in the underside of the near ear." 

[>0 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

The taking of stray animals, and their impounding 
and sale when not claimed by the owner, was also com- 
mon, as shown by the following, copied from the Litch- 
field town records: 

"Two red yearlen heffers marked with a cross in the 
off ear and one black yearlen heffer with some white 
upon the rump, white under bolly and sum white upon 
the inside of the hind leggs— also marked with a cross 
in the off ear — which heffers are in the custody of 
Thomas Lee and have been prized by his desire on the 
27th day of November last by us, by the sum of three 
pounds and fifteen shillings, by us John Boldwin, 
Joseph Bixy. The above named heffers are put upon 
record this fifth day of December anno domini 1723." 

Also the following, which is a record of sale: 

"Taken damage feasant, and impounded by Samuel 
Plum in Litchfield and sold as the law demits by Ozias 
Lewis, the following sheep, marks as follows '<^X!Z^ 
sold for i£ us; <CIX3> so ^ f° r l & I 3 S -" 

Although King Philip's war, two years later, 
wrought havoc to the little band of a dozen or more 
families that had ventured to settle in new homes in 
the wilderness, and drove them back to the parent town, 
yet the records show that within a few years a road was 
laid out along the old Indian trail from what is now 
Southbury to the present site of Woodbury, and new 
settlements were rapidly made along this highway. 

[223 



FIRST SETTLERS AND EARLY HOME LIFE 

New Milford, in the rich valley of the Pootatuch 
(later known as the Housatonic) , was the second settle- 
ment, being occupied first in 1707. The fact that the 
settlers came mostly from Milford gave to the settle- 
ment the name New Milford. 

As Litchfield County is only about sixty miles from 
the Hudson, it is not surprising that settlers of Dutch 
descent early came to its western border, purchasing 
lands from the Indians and making settlements. In 
fact, the western border of the county was long in dis- 
pute between the Dutch and the English. Tradition 
has it that the redoubtable Ethan Allen settled it for- 
ever—in his mind, anyway— by planting a cannon on 
Town Hill in Salisbury and declaring that it should be 
Connecticut territory as far as this cannon should carry 
a ball. These Dutch settlers took up holdings at 
Weatogue in Salisbury as early as 1720, although the 
sale of the town did not take place till 1737. The pres- 
ence of prominent families of both Dutch and English 
extraction, in the early history of the town, is shown on 
the land records by such names as Dutcher, Knicker- 
bacher and Van Duzen on the one hand, and Russell, 
Lamb, Porter and Church on the other. The influence 
of the early Dutch settlers is still seen in the Dutch style 
of architecture. There are several quaint, low houses 
which are in decided contrast to the more dignified 
square-built houses of colonial architecture. The 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

houses of the Dutch type are built usually under the lee 
of a protecting hill which afforded opportunity for the 
basement rooms much affected by the Dutch. 

The close of the first century in the history of the 
county was celebrated in 185 1 by a centennial at the 
county seat. Among the many notable addresses was 
the classic discourse, "The Age of Homespun," by the 
great divine Horace Bushnell, who, although his fame 
had taken him to other realms, was himself a son of 
the county. So clearly does this discourse set forth the 
spirit of the age, as represented in the first century of 
our history, that I venture to quote briefly: "Given the 
fact that a people spin their own dress, and you have in 
that fact a whole volume of characteristics. The dis- 
tinction will show them to be a people not in trade, 
whose life centers in the family, home bred in their 
manners, primitive and simple in their character, in- 
flexible in their piety. If the clothing is to be manu- 
factured in the house, then flax will be grown in the 
plowed land, sheep will be raised in the pasture, and the 
measure of the flax ground and the number of the flock 
will correspond with the measure of the home market, 
the number of sons and daughters to be clothed, so that 
the agriculture out of doors will map the family in- 
doors." 

In other words, this was an age when agriculture was 
a self-supporting industry. The wants of the family 

l>4] 



FIRST SETTLERS AND EARLY HOME LIFE 

were fully supplied from the fields, the flocks, the herds 
and the forest. The house was a factory on the farm, 
and the farmer the producer of the raw materials used 
in the factory. The conditions, throughout the entire 
county, were much the same during the earlier part of 
the first century of our history, and were marked by an 
almost entire absence of trade. True, the farmers in 
the southern edge of the county could reach the coast 
and found a limited market with the West Indies, and 
the extreme western towns found a small outlet for 
farm products by way of the Hudson River, but the 
almost entire absence of roads and the scarcity of 
vehicles for transportation made travel almost impos- 
sible, except on horseback. In the earlier days this 
mode of travel was practised alike by the women and 
the men. 

The first dwellings were doubtless made from hewn 
timbers taken directly from the forests, but as power 
saw-mills were early constructed along the many 
streams, rough boards were soon sawed for the outside 
covering, flooring and interior finish, and the original 
log houses were soon replaced by more pretentious 
dwellings. All of the finish had to be done by hand- 
working, and so skilled were many of the workmen that 
the interior arrangements are without parallel to-day 
for utility, combined with good taste. The heavy hewn 
timbers, often showing in the corners and ceilings of the 

Z*5l 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

rooms, were features of beauty as well as strength. 
The mellowed color of the wood gave a tone to the 
whole room, and when the beams were ornamented 
with a simple carved design, as was sometimes done in 
the "best room," the effect was, as an old, old lady once 
said, "right neat and tasty." Very often the walls of 
the rooms in these old houses are covered with wooden 
panels, especially about the chimney, where the panels 
concealed the various handy cupboards and snug re- 
cesses. 

The long lean-to roof, sometimes sloping nearly to 
the ground, was a shrewd attempt of the early settlers 
to avoid the tax laid by Queen Anne on all two-story 
houses. These salt-box houses, as they are called, are 
quite characteristic of rural New England. They allow 
for great surface area on the first floor and provide full 
height chambers on one side of the upper story. The 
low roof with its gentle rise had its possible disadvan- 
tages, as voiced in the old couplet, 

"O for a thousand bricks 

To build my chimney higher; 
To keep the pesky neighbors' gals 
From putting out my fire." 

One of the earliest and most important improve- 
ments bearing on building construction is credited to 

C»«3 



FIRST SETTLERS AND EARLY HOME LIFE 

the astuteness of a Litchfield County man during Revo- 
lutionary days. Up to this time nails were all ham- 
mered out of bar iron, a slow and expensive process. 
There was a slitting mill in New Jersey in which nail 
rods were made, but the process was kept secret. 
Samuel Forbes of Canaan wished to obtain a know- 
ledge of it, and so employed an ingenious mechanic and 
millwright, who, under disguise, obtained admission to 
the mill and critically and without suspicion marked the 
machinery and its operations so as to be able to make a 
model of the machine and construct a mill for Forbes. 

The shingles used in the early days were all riven 
by hand. "A block was sawn from whatever wood was 
handy, ash or chestnut or pine, but a good straight 
grain. Then the piece was set on end and it was care- 
fully split into thin pieces by frow and wooden mallet. 
These were then shaved to the proper thinness and 
would last, even the pine shingle, for fifty years. And 
that was because they didn't lay 'em so tight. What 
was a frow? Oh, it was like a broad, thin-bladed axe, 
and was always struck by a mallet to drive it in." 

But it was the great stone chimney with its flanking 
fireplaces that was the heart of the home. Built of 
rough field stone, rudely cut into blocks, the chimney 
often took up as much space on the first floor as a mod- 
ern city room. This great size was necessary to pro- 
vide flues for the many fireplaces which were built in it, 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

up and down on all sides; often there were six, some- 
times twenty. In some of these old chimneys, too, there 
was built a little room where, on projecting pegs, could 
be hung and smoked the yearly supply of hams and 
bacon. Often a rude ladder was constructed of 
projecting stones on the outside of the chimney, by 
means of which one could climb from cellar to roof. 
Around the hearth, in the great living room, the family 
gathered in the long winter evenings, each one busy 
with some task. The smoke from the great logs of 
beech, birch, oak and hickory, against the evening sky, 
bespoke a condition of interior comfort and signaled a 
welcome to many a stranger. To give a little idea of the 
size of those great fireplaces, a lady told me not long 
ago that she well remembered standing in the corner of 
the fireplace with a good fire blazing on the hearth and 
looking up with awe and wonder at the stars twinkling 
above the chimney top. 

In these days of ready-made goods one can scarcely 
imagine the variety of occupations pursued in these old 
living rooms. Here the wool was carded and spun, 
here stockings were knit and the flax was spun, and pos- 
sibly the earlier preparation was given it here. By the 
light of the blazing fire the thrifty farmer carved out 
the simple tools used in his primitive agriculture. Here 
he fashioned flails, hand cards, wooden rakes or harrow 
teeth, made spiles for tapping the maple trees, or fash- 



FIRST SETTLERS AND EARLY HOME LIFE 

ioned snow-shoes to be used in crossing the drifted 
snows they had in those good old-fashioned winters. 

During the Revolution much of the cherished pewter 
was melted for bullets. The story goes that in the town 
of Sharon there was a bullet "bee" and several bushels 
of bullets were moulded in an evening. Then, the 
household supply of pewter dishes being seriously de- 
pleted, there was another "bee" at which the young 
men carved wooden plates and trenchers to take the 
place of those patriotically sacrificed to the cause of 
freedom. 

Aside from the fashioning of the lighter implements 
by the fireplace and the cutting and hauling of the great 
piles of wood needed for the year's supply, the farmer 
and his sons often worked during the winter at some 
minor trades in small shops built for the purpose. 
There they broke and hetcheled the flax, made barrels, 
butter firkins, wash tubs, and buckets for water, for 
milk or for sap. They put flag or rush bottoms in 
chairs and the more skilful fashioned some of the plain, 
strong pieces of furniture out of the great black cherry 
trees that had been felled and seasoned for the purpose. 

In the towns where there were limestone outcrop- 
pings, the farmers used to make a rough kiln, piling it 
full of the pieces of limestone and then burning it. 
After burning it would be left in a heap until a conve- 
nient time, when it would be hauled by ox teams to 

09] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

Hartford or Albany, to be exchanged for household 
necessities. It took three days to make the trip from 
Canaan to Hartford and return — two trips a week. 

On some of the farms slaves were kept to do the 
heavier work for the house and farm. One man 
brought with him from his former home in the South 
over a hundred slaves, but soon sold most of them for 
lack of slave quarters. 

The days of the house-mother in those early times 
were filled with duties, many and various. She had to 
look well to the ways of her household, else it suffered 
from lack of food and clothes. She took the raw ma- 
terial produced by the goodman of the house and the 
stalwart sons, and from the flax made clothes and from 
the corn made food. Very little that was used in the 
house came from outside. The sugar was made from the 
hard maples, the meats were home-grown and home- 
cured, soap was made twice a year; candles to supple- 
ment the light from the blazing fireplace were dipped 
for daily use, or run for company candles. I remember 
the tall candlesticks with a curved hook projecting 
from the top rim. This was to catch into a staple driven 
into the edge of the mantel over the fireplace to bring 
the light nearer to one who would thumb the almanac 
or peruse a volume of sermons. All the clothing of the 
family, as well as household linen, was usually made in 
the home. A dress of cotton print was a greater 

[30] 



FIRST SETTLERS AND EARLY HOME LIFE 

treasure a hundred years ago than a silk one is to-day. 
A busy, busy life they led, these sturdy forefathers and 
foremothers of ours; toil was tedious, but they were 
content, and life was sweet. 



D>3 



CHAPTER III 



FIELD AND GARDEN CROPS IN THE EARLY DAYS 




T has been noted that the earliest settle- 
ments were along river valleys. This was 
most natural for two reasons: the rivers 
were the usual means of penetrating the 
wilderness, and the valleys through which 
they flowed were comparatively free from forests and 
were composed of a kind of soil more readily cultivated 
than the rocky areas on the hillsides. 

After a field was stripped of trees and freed from 
stones, it was plowed and roughly harrowed. The only 
plow in use up to the early years of the nineteenth cen- 
tury was the unwieldy, heavy-beamed, wooden plow. It 
was not of a type suited to lifting boulders in its course 
through the soil. Perhaps this may account for the 
thoroughness with which fields on our hills were cleared 

[32] 



CROPS IN THE EARLY DAYS 

of loose stones and boulders. There were many tradi- 
tions of "bees" where men and teams turned in to help 
a neighbor clear a field of rocks, which were afterwards 
utilized in making great walls about the fields. After 
the rude plow, the heavy, wooden, peg-toothed harrow 
was used for fitting the seed bed, and after seeding, the 
brush was dragged over to scratch in the seed. These 
were the only implements of tillage, excepting, of 
course, the strictly hand tools, in use until after the 
Revolution. 

Corn was planted by hand, following the old Indian 
custom. A child often carried a sack of corn, walking 
up and down the plowed field and dropping in the tra- 
ditional five kernels, 

"One for the bug, 
One for the crow, 
One to rot 

And two to grow." 

Following the dropper came a stalwart man armed 
with the heavy, clumsy hoe, who drew the earth over 
the kernels and gave it three pats to fix the earth 
about them. 

The sown crops needed little care till harvest, but 
progressive farmers, or those having many boys to keep 
employed, always hoed the corn. A man who in his 

C33] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

eighty-third year "raised 171 bushels, on the ear, of 
corn to the acre" told me that the plowing was poorly 
done in those days, but good crops were harvested be- 
cause the land was new and rich. He also said that in 
his grandfather's day, after a piece was plowed and 
sown, "the farmer would cut down a good stout thorn 
bush and kinder hetchel in the seed." Flax, rye and 
wheat were "hetcheled" in, or scratched in with a 
brush. This brush generally consisted of birch trees set 
in a head. A long chain connected it with the ox yoke. 

For many years the grain harvest was entirely de- 
pendent on the sickle — a slow, tedious process indeed, 
and not so very much lightened by the introduction of 
the grain cradle. It took a strong man with an un- 
breakable back and an alert eye to be a good cradler. 
Great are the stories told even to this day of the mighty 
feats of cradling performed by our fathers or grand- 
fathers. The usual day's work was two or three acres, 
but there is a record of thirty acres in six days. It took 
a skilful swing of the cradle to cut the grain close to the 
ground and yet not close enough to hit the small stones 
and dull the scythe. 

The corn crop, aside from the hoeing, was more 
easily raised than the small grains. The ears could be 
picked from the standing stalks, or more often the corn 
was cut, the stalks dried in the field and then either the 
unhusked ears picked off and carried to the barn, or else 

do 



CROPS IN THE EARLY DAYS 

the whole shocks of corn were thus stored. The husk- 
ing of the corn gave opportunity for great frolics, and 
it is one of the few diversions of our ancestors which 
possesses romance enough to be popular among young 
people of the present time. Probably its popularity is 
due to the perpetual presence of red ears. 

Such good things as were made of the corn!— mush 
or hasty pudding, well deserving the eloquent tribute 
paid to it by Joel Barlow in his "Ode to Hasty Pud- 
ding," as it came hot and fragrant from its long, slow 
cooking over the coals; hoe cake or ash cake, crisp and 
so brown and tasty around the edges. A delicious 
johnny-cake was made by mixing the meal with hot 
water, spreading it on a smooth oak board, covering 
the dough with thick cream and slightly tipping it up in 
front of the fire to cook, turning it as needed. The truly 
old-fashioned bean porridge was thickened with corn 
meal. 

A lady who was born in 1 8 1 8 once told me her ex- 
planation of the common saying, "He'll never set the 
Thames [or river] afire." The Indian meal used to be 
sifted into a long wooden bread tray, and from one end 
to the other ran a flat stick to support the coarse cloth- 
bottomed sieve or "tempse." A swift worker moving 
this quickly back and forth might possibly "set the 
tempse afire," but a slow person never would. 

In most communities, in the early days, wheat was 

C353 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

seldom raised; and when it was, the flour, though not 
much like the product of the modern flour mills, was 
saved for extra occasions. The common bread was 
"rye and injun," made of rye meal and corn meal 
mixed. 

The farm garden was probably meagerly supplied in 
those early days. Aside from the field crops of rye, 
buckwheat, wheat and corn, they had beans, peas, 
turnips, parsnips, and carrots. Potatoes were little 
used until after the Revolution. The native pumpkins 
and squashes were much appreciated by the early set- 
tlers and were utilized in astonishing ways, and what 
they couldn't eat fresh the good housewife dried for 
the winter's supply. Helen Evertson Smith, in her at- 
tractive book "Colonial Days and Ways," transcribes 
a letter describing Thanksgiving Day in 1779. The 
writer remarks that they have no beef and have not had 
for three years because it has all gone to the soldiers in 
the army. They had venison from a good red deer, 
huge chines of roast pork, a big roast turkey, a goose 
and two big pigeon pasties. "Then there was an 
abundance of good vegetables of all the old sorts and 
one which I do not believe you have seen yet. Uncle 
Simeon had imported the seed from England just be- 
fore the war began and only this year was there enough 
for table use. It is called Sellery and you eat it without 
cooking. It is very good served with meats. ... It has 

[363 



CROPS IN THE EARLY DAYS 

to be taken up roots and all and buried in earth in the 
cellar through the winter and only pulled up when you 
want some of it to use." 

A crop of the greatest importance, though one sel- 
dom raised now, was flax. Its culture was considered 
so important that the government directed that it be 
raised by each farmer, being sown in May and ready to 
pull by the last of July. A more beautiful sight than 
a field of blossoming flax, as blue as the heavens, can 
hardly be imagined. Although the flax was so quickly 
grown, yet its preparation for household use was slow 
and tedious. It was pulled by the roots and then ripped ; 
that is, the seed pods were combed off by a ripple comb. 
These pods and seeds were caught on a sheet to 
furnish seed for another season. Rippling was done in 
the field and then the stalks were tied by the blossom 
ends and dried. When dry they were put in running 
water and left till the leaves rotted off, a process that 
took only a few days. This was called retting the flax. 
After retting it was dried and tied in bundles and then 
broken on the heavy flax brake to separate the fibers. 
This was very heavy work, properly belonging to the 
men of the farm. After breaking, it was "scutched or 
swingled" to take out the bark. The swingling had to 
be done on a dry day, and from the coarse refuse which 
was taken out, sacking could be made. Then the flax 
was ready to be hetcheled. This process consisted in 

£371 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

threshing small bunches of the straw across the teeth of 
a hetchel, thereby straightening the fibers and combing 
out the small pieces. As many as six hetchels were 
sometimes used if especially fine linen was desired, and 
it was astonishing that so small a quantity was left for 
further manipulation. But it was also surprising to see 
how much thread a small handful of good fiber would 
make. Thus after twenty handlings of the flax it was 
only ready to spin. When spun and reeled it was ready 
to be bleached in the thread, and various bleachings 
marked the finished product. 

As more cattle came to be kept, it became necessary 
to house winter food for them. The great meadows 
produced native grasses, but the early settlers regarded 
these with scant favor and imported seed from England 
to improve the grass lands. This custom has been kept 
up, and now, nearly three hundred years since the first 
settlement in New England, there is, with the exception 
of Phleum pratense, the herd's grass or timothy, not a 
native grass deemed worthy of cultivation. And the 
botanists are trying to prove that the quaint little tradi- 
tion of Timothy Herd and his native grass must go into 
tradition's scrap heap along with the stories of the 
apple and cherry tree. 

However, there were big hay fields, and up to about 
1850 these were all cut by hand. One aged farmer thus 
tells his first experience: "Say, I've got the first half 

C383 



CROPS IN THE EARLY DAYS 

dollar I ever earned. I worked for a man in haying 
time a week for my board and earned that half dollar; 
we worked, I tell ye. We'd get up'n the morning, say at 
half past two, or soon's we c'u'd see, 'n' mow till five (I 
spread). Then I'd get up the cows and the women 'n' 
I'd milk the cows, 'n' we'd have breakfast. 'N' then 
we'd go at it ag'in, mowin' as hard's ever we c'u'd till 
ten. Then all hands, women 'n' all, would turn in 'n' 
rake and get in. I 'member that five men got in thirteen 
loads one day. It'd bother a mowing machine some to 
do that." 

One means of enlarging the hay crop that was in use 
on many farms sixty to eighty years ago was by irriga- 
tion. Whenever a brook could be turned from its 
course and carried along some slope and then be turned 
over the grass fields, it was commonly done and the hay 
crop thus greatly improved. On many farms through- 
out the county may be found old irrigation ditches that 
have long been abandoned. In the first report of the 
State Board of Agriculture in 1866 will be found series 
of letters on what was then being done with irrigation 
in agriculture, and some of the best results are reported 
from Litchfield County. 

Although the potato was a plant of American origin, 
it was not known to the natives of the North at the time 
this country was settled. It was introduced into Eng- 
land and on the European continent from our southern 

[39] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

colonies and probably came to New England with the 
soldiers who were engaged in the South during the 
Revolutionary War. At any rate, it was not widely 
grown in Connecticut until after this period. Early in 
the nineteenth century this crop became generally 
known through New England and every family grew at 
least what was wanted for home use. New land, well 
stored with decaying organic matter, proved ideal for 
this crop, and such soils frequently gave yields of 300 
to 400 bushels an acre. Everything connected with the 
crop had to be done by hand labor. The usual method 
of planting was in hills, and by hand hoeing a mound of 
earth was piled around each hill about the time the 
tubers began to form. This was thought necessary to 
prevent the tubers from becoming exposed to the direct 
sunlight when they became large. 

A much earlier crop than the potato was the turnip. 
This crop was grown in England and in the north of 
Europe long before the potato was cultivated in those 
countries. In this country it was early found to be a 
valuable feed for sheep. The coarse, dry fodders that 
were used in winter afforded little nutriment for the 
sheep and they often came through the winter gaunt 
and flabby. In order to put the ewes in good condition 
before the lambing season it was a common practice to 
feed them turnips during the latter part of the winter 
and in the early spring. Turnips were frequently sown 

[4°n 



CROPS IN THE EARLY DAYS 

in the corn fields in midsummer, and made good growth 
through the fall, after the corn was cut. 

Carrots were another root crop whose feeding value 
was early recognized. Before the days of patent butter 
colors, carrots were commonly fed to milking cows, 
when they were not on pasture feed, in order to impart 
a "June color" to the butter. Carrots, too, were com- 
monly fed to horses before the days of western grain 
feeds. They were found to be especially valuable as a 
tonic and corrective. 

America gave to the world two of the most useful 
food plants — corn and the potato — and in addition the 
worthless and yet commercially valuable weed, tobacco. 
This plant was found by the first settlers, being cul- 
tivated by the Indians in Virginia, and they taught 
the white man the use of the soothing narcotic. While 
tobacco was grown as a garden crop in Connecticut in 
colonial days, it was not cultivated for market until 
about 1830. It was grown in the Connecticut Valley 
for about twenty years before it came into the Housa- 
tonic Valley. Up to about thirty years ago the Con- 
necticut broad leaf, introduced from Maryland into this 
State in the early thirties, was the leading variety grown 
for the trade. For the past thirty years the highest 
grade of Havana wrapper leaf has been grown with 
good profit on the sandy loam soils of the Housatonic 
Valley. 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

Many of the garden crops that are now so readily 
preserved for winter use by canning, were preserved in 
the early days by drying. Nearly every kitchen was 
festooned from the ceiling with strings of dried apples, 
sliced pumpkins and squash and red peppers, and often 
the shelves were covered with sweet corn, green peas, 
currants and sometimes with berries from the woods 
and fields. Before the days of railroads, when there 
was little travel from place to place, each family was 
sure to provide itself with a goodly store of everything 
that could add to the physical comfort of the family 
during the long winter season. The family constituted 
the only market for the farm products, and the needs of 
the family and of the live stock were a measure of the 
crops grown. 



OH 



CHAPTER IV 




FARMING TOOLS AND IMPLEMENTS 

S has been incidentally noted in the pre- 
ceding pages, the tools of the early set- 
tlers were of the simplest, crudest con- 
struction, and generally home-made. The 
farmer and the members of his household 
made the rakes, the forks, axe helves, shovels with 
wrought iron edges, flails, baskets, ox yokes, cheese 
presses, butter bowls and paddles. Even plow frames 
and drags were fashioned by the aid of adze, draw- 
shave and knife, from the timber of the forest which 
stood almost at the farmer's door. 

The first plows were heavy, clumsy affairs, almost 
wholly of wood except that the mouldboard was rein- 
forced by bands of iron; and yet some of the older men 
say that "Grandfather with one of these heavy wooden 

[43] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

plows, drawn by a yoke of oxen, could do handsomer 
plowing than is done with the best sulky plow of to- 
day." 

The mechanics of the plow were practically unknown 
until Thomas Jefferson made a study of the subject and 
constructed a plow along scientific lines, basing his work 
on the mechanical principles of the wedge, by which the 
plow operates. From this time (about 1800) the real 
improvements in the plow began. For years after these 
experiments the farmers were slow to appreciate the 
benefits which might result from them. They thought 
the iron plow would poison the soil, and so, for many 
years, they clung to the heavy wooden plow which 
varied but little in pattern from that used 3000 years 
ago. Some of these old plows were so heavy that sev- 
eral men were required to hold one in the soil. When 
the plow which Israel Putnam left in the furrow to 
answer the call of Bunker Hill was exhibited in Hart- 
ford, some twenty years ago, an up-to-date farmer was 
heard to say, "Well, I don't wonder he left it in the 
furrow to answer the call. He'd never have got there 
if he'd waited to finish plowing, and I don't know but 
death by a bullet would be full as easy as wearing your- 
self out bunting rocks with that thing." 

After the land was prepared by the plow the seed 
was sown broadcast by hand, and in the very early times 
"kinder hetcheled in with a thorn bush set in a stick." 

[44] 



FARMING TOOLS AND IMPLEMENTS 

Then the seed was "firmed in" by the use of a heavy 
stone boat loaded with stones or by a wooden roller 
hewn by hand from a tree trunk, two feet or more in 
diameter. 

The common form of harrow of one hundred years 
ago was the wooden framed, A-shaped harrow, set with 
hardwood pegs more than a foot in length. Of course, 
on our rocky hills it became necessary frequently to re- 
place the teeth, as they soon became dulled so that they 
only slightly stirred the surface soil. 

The grain was for years cut by the sickle, a method 
dating back to Bible times. From the New England 
Farmer, issue of July 21, 1849, the following is taken 
regarding "Grain Cradles" : 

"This is truly a labor-saving implement, doing work 
in a neat manner in good hands, and with great expedi- 
tion, having decided advantages over the sickle with its 
slow, tedious, back-aching operation. The gain in dis- 
patching the harvesting of grain is not merely doing it 
at less expense, but often the advantage is in perform- 
ing it in the very nick of time and thereby saving the 
grain from a storm or from standing too late." 

Although the first reapers had been patented prior to 
the introduction of the grain cradle, for many years 
they did not work satisfactorily. What proved to be 
the first satisfactory style of horse-power reaper was 
shown at the World's Fair in London in 1851, and this, 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

like nearly all of our improved farm machinery, was of 
American invention. It is only within the past thirty 
years that reapers have been used at all commonly on 
the stony side hill fields of Litchfield County. 

After the grain was cradled it was bound in bundles, 
and when sufficiently dry was laboriously threshed by 
hand. A flail is one of the simplest of farming tools, 
and yet its manipulation requires great skill. Two 
smooth, rounded sticks are tied together by a thong, 
preferably of eel's skin, and the trick is to grasp the 
handle and then rhythmically thump out the grain with 
the swinging end and not thump your own head or the 
person of your threshing mate. Yankee ingenuity soon 
contrived an easier way of threshing, and water-power 
threshers early came into use. These did away with 
the labor of threshing by hand, but the straw was 
chopped up and spoiled. With the invention of the 
horse-power thresher, improvements were made so that 
the straw came out in shape to use as desired. One 
successful farmer, now living in Canaan, has recently 
told me that seventy years ago his father raised forty 
acres of oats, threshed them by "water thresher" and 
carted them to Winsted, where they were sold for 
twenty-six cents a bushel. In the early times the 
threshed grain was winnowed by pouring from one re- 
ceptacle to another and letting the wind carry away the 
chaff. Or on a windy day the big barn doors were 

[46] 



FARMING TOOLS AND IMPLEMENTS 

opened and the threshed grain was tossed in the air by 
clean wooden scoop shovels and the lighter chaff blown 
away. In a collection of old implements I saw not long 
ago were several broad, shallow, close-woven baskets 
of splint work, which were labeled "Use Unknown." 
I may be mistaken, but I strongly suspect they were bas- 
kets woven for the special purpose of winnowing grain. 

The cleaned grain was now ready for the mill. 
Among the earliest grants in nearly every township was 
the water privilege which was given on the condition 
that the grantee should grind all the grain for the com- 
munity. It is probable that until after the establishment 
of grist mills not much use was made of the small 
grains. Indian corn was the staple grain in the earliest 
times and was ground into meal in the Indian fashion. 

The corn when husked had to be shelled, and many 
and various were the devices employed to make the 
flinty kernels rattle off faster. The common method 
was to rub one ear across another in the hands and thus 
make them shell each other; but seekers after an easier 
way used to rake the well dried ears across the edge of 
a clean shovel or the sharp edge of a skillet. Yankee 
ingenuity soon devised a crude shelling machine, and 
those in use to-day are fashioned upon the same prin- 
ciple. 

The shelled corn, in the absence of the power mill, 
might be pounded in a hollow stump made for the pur- 

[47] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

pose, and thus cracked or ground, or be crushed in a 
primitive hand mill. Where the Indian method of 
cracking in a stump was employed it was often set out 
of doors under a tree and the pestle tied to a bough to 
give it a rebound and save, for the down stroke, the 
weary arms of the miller. 

Mr. W. E. Pettee of Salisbury invented the first 
spring-toothed harrow, one of the first steps in making 
farm work easy. By a peculiar process of tempering 
the steel he was able to construct a harrow with curved 
teeth that would spring back and pass over obstacles 
but not break. He also bought and brought to that 
town the first mowing machine. 

Up to about 1850 all grain and hay had to be cut and 
handled entirely by hand. It was no uncommon thing 
to see six or eight mowers, with rhythmic swing, tread- 
ing the hay fields from "sun up" to midday. The rak- 
ing, too, was all done by hand, and it took every member 
of the household to gather up and haul in the afternoon 
what the men folks had laid down in the forenoon. 

The first mowing machine was known as a one- 
wheeler— "awkward, heavy, and clumsy," it is charac- 
terized by a man who used one. Then came the 
Eureka machine, with high wheels and the cutter-bar 
working in front and between them. This type of ma- 
chine is in use at the present time, though almost en- 
tirely superseded by the side cutter-bar type. In using 

[48: 



FARMING TOOLS AND IMPLEMENTS 

the Eureka machine the team was driven back and forth 
instead of around a piece. 

To supplement the forks bought at the store the boys 
were supplied with forked sticks cut out of the 
forest and seasoned a little. In my childhood I well 
remember Father cutting a stout forked sapling for me 
to use in spreading the swath as I followed the mowers. 
Rakes, too, were contrived at home, and as the harvests 
became larger, the bull rake— having teeth eighteen 
inches long, set into a head more than six feet wide — 
was invented to use in raking after the load. 

One of the earliest horse rakes consisted of wooden 
teeth more than six feet long set through a roller — the 
roller mounted on wheels. The teeth were pointed only 
on the side next the ground. When the teeth were full 
the thing twisted itself over and started the teeth on 
the other side picking up a mouthful. It was never very 
successful and was quickly forgotten when the iron- 
toothed rake with a foot dumper came into use. 

From the settlement of the country down to the close 
of the eighteenth century there was practically no im- 
proved farm machinery, in the sense that we think of 
improved machinery to-day. The use of steam as a 
motive power was unknown until after Fulton's steam- 
boat plied the Hudson River in 1809. Horse-power 
machinery was not known till near the middle of the 
last century. The chief motive power for all farm 

[49] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

work prior to seventy-five years ago was the ox team. 
Horses were little used for farm work, and so most of 
the hauling of heavy loads was done with the two- 
wheeled ox cart. Many of these were homemade and 
often the axles were made from hickory. Practically 
the only iron on many of the older carts was the tires. 
When the body of this two-wheeled cart was fitted with 
sloping racks extending many feet in all four direc- 
tions, heavy loads of grain and hay could be hauled. 

In the earliest days all of the long-distance travel was 
on horseback, as the bridle paths were the only high- 
ways and horseback travel was the common means of 
going from one settlement to another. When roads 
became more common heavy loads of farm produce 
were occasionally sent to the Sound at the south or the 
Hudson River at the west by the slow but sturdy ox 
teams. The extent to which the ox team came into use 
is illustrated by the account given by a man now living, 
whose uncle took an ox load of gun barrels from the 
place of casting at Mount Riga to Harper's Ferry, sell- 
ing his oxen at the end of the journey and making the 
return trip on foot. 



Lsol 



CHAPTER V 




FRUITS AND FRUIT GROWING 

N page 455 of Barbour's "Historical Col- 
lection," printed in 1836, is this note: 
"There is an apple tree now standing on 
the farm of Mr. Solomon Marsh in 
Litchfield, supposed to be about 116 
years old, and is now in a vigorous state. Its trunk, 
two feet from the ground, measures eleven feet five 
inches in circumference. The circumference of its 
branches is nearly eleven rods in extent. It bore in 
1835 one hundred bushels of apples of a fine quality." 

As Litchfield was sold for settlement in 17 18, this 
apple tree, if the above record is accurate, must have 
been about the first thing planted by the first man who 
settled in the town. However that may be, its great 
size and vigor are sufficient warrant for the statement 

[Si] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

that the hillsides of this county, with their natural fruit 
soils, furnish some of the best apple lands in the coun- 
try. 

Very little attention was at first paid to the selection 
of choice varieties of apples. This is evidenced by the 
fact that very old orchards of the present day often 
contain none of the choicer kinds. Most of the very 
oldest trees around abandoned homesteads bear only 
native fruit, except possibly here and there a branch 
where top-grafting was practised after the tree had at- 
tained considerable size. I recall one old, decaying 
orchard in Salisbury where I have searched for several 
years for grafted varieties of fruit, but without avail, 
although the trees have nearly all borne abundantly. 
Little use was made of the fruit as food in the early 
days of the colonists. But cider was made and was 
stored and used in great quantities on every farm. It 
was taken to church to drink with the hearty luncheon 
with which all fortified themselves in the noon hour 
between the long discourses of morning and afternoon. 
In one case, as previously recorded, even the minister 
did not hesitate to increase his meager salary by engag- 
ing in this traffic, for he was "hired for fifty pounds of 
lawful money and the privilege of running the town 
cider mill." 

Stills for cider brandy, too, were common every- 
where, and large quantities of the cider were converted 

[5*] 



FRUITS AND FRUIT GROWING 

into this strong intoxicant. When it was desired to 
save the expense or the trouble of making this bever- 
age, what was said to be a good substitute was made by 
freezing cider that had been fermenting in barrels for 
several months. Then the brandy would collect at the 
center unfrozen, and by boring a hole with a long auger 
the concentrated product could be drawn off. 

From Orcutt's "History of Torrington" the follow- 
ing notes have been gleaned: "Many of the early set- 
tlers, having been reared in those parts of the State 
where apples had become an important commodity in 
the enjoyment of life, were led, in the early stages of the 
settlement, to give much attention to the planting of 
this kind of tree. This is very evident from the large 
quantity of apples and cider found here in 1770 and 
afterwards. In 1773 there were four cider mills on the 
west side, and at least one brandy still. An apple or- 
chard would not reach any considerable maturity under 
twenty years, and therefore the planting of such or- 
chards must have been one of the great enterprises of 
the town." 

T. S. Gold, in his "Reminiscences," writes: "Fruits 
at the beginning of the century were few from 
grafted or budded trees. I have a single tree, a 'Seek- 
nofurther,' grafted near the ground, the last survivor 
of an orchard which is said to have been planted about 
1760. A few Pearmain trees were also in the orchard; 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

the rest were native fruit— two so good we have per- 
petuated them by grafting." 

"Peaches, good, bad and indifferent, grew abundantly 
from the stones planted in the fence corners of the gar- 
den or orchard, till the yellows came about fifty years 
ago and swept them all away." 

"One hundred years ago the culture of small fruits 
for market was unknown, but they crept into city and 
village gardens. Sixty years ago President Day, of 
blessed memory, could be seen from the Yale dormi- 
tories hoeing his own strawberry bed. Professional 
men were good gardeners and the best farmers. The 
introduction of new and choice fruits was due to them." 

The doctor, the minister and the lawyer always had 
their farm to eke out the meager incomes of their pro- 
fessions. As they were about the only members of a 
community who indulged in the luxury of books and 
papers, they alone were in a position to know what new 
fruits and vegetables were being introduced from other 
countries, and they were ever ready to test out interest- 
ing introductions. 

Nearly all of our improved fruits are of old-world 
origin. The wild apple was brought to this country by 
the first settlers, and our improved varieties had their 
origin in what are known as chance seedlings. It is a 
well known fact that apples, peaches, cherries and some 
other fruits will, when grown from seed, occasionally 

[54] 



FRUITS AND FRUIT GROWING 

develop a tree of choice fruit. By grafting or budding 
from this natural selection a new variety is dissemi- 
nated, and if especially choice it finds widespread 
use. Within a few years the original Rhode Island 
greening tree was still standing, just over the Con- 
necticut line; not many years ago the original Baldwin 
tree stood in its native town in Massachusetts, and 
until within a few years there existed the original 
northern spy tree in western New York. To-day the 
spot is marked by a monument erected by the many 
admirers of this choice variety. It may not be amiss to 
relate here the tradition that the seed from which this 
choice apple was developed was taken to western New 
York from the Holmes farm in Salisbury, Connecticut. 
A few years before his death the owner of this farm 
told the writer that he still had on his farm a tree the 
fruit of which closely resembled the northern spy. At 
any rate, authentic records of the origin of this choice 
variety show that the seed was taken from Salisbury, 
Connecticut, to western New York. 

Grafting and budding, as means of propagating fruit 
trees, were known long before the settlement of this 
country — grafting at least having been practised by the 
Romans. The method of root grafting of the small 
seedlings is probably of comparatively recent origin, as 
most of the older trees show evidence of having been 
top-grafted quite a distance above the ground. This is 

[55] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

what causes the distinct enlargement on many apple 
tree trunks. The scion, which was inserted by means 
of the cleft graft, often grew more rapidly than the 
original stock, making the enlargement or bulge at the 
point of union. 

Choice varieties of apples and pears began to be 
propagated shortly after the American Revolution. 
Aside from the northern spy, to whose Connecticut 
origin reference has already been made, another fine 
commercial apple was originated in Litchfield County. 
The Hurlburt stripe, or Hurlburt, is a well known late 
fall variety that originated on the farm of Lemuel 
Hurlburt of Winchester, and is first recorded in the 
works on fruit about 1850. 

The growing and selling of nursery stock became an 
established business about one hundred years ago. As 
the people began to select improved varieties and the 
nurseries began to propagate and disseminate them, 
every family soon made a practice of surrounding their 
dwelling with choice varieties of pears, peaches, plums, 
quinces and cherries, to say nothing of the smaller 
fruits, such as grapes, currants and gooseberries. 

The native berry fruits, such as the strawberry, the 
blackberry, the huckleberry, the blueberry and the rasp- 
berry, were common everywhere, either in meadow, 
swamp, on hillside pastures or newly cleared forest 
areas; and so, little attention was given to the garden 

[56] 



FRUITS AND FRUIT GROWING 

culture of any of these fruits until within the past sixty 
years. As far as known, the strawberry was the only 
berry fruit brought under cultivation prior to 1850. 

In 1802 Mr. Blakesley of Plymouth writes: "My 
method of making a nursery is to separate my apple 
seeds from the pomace in the fall of the year, let the 
seeds freeze one night in the latter part of the winter, 
plant them in my garden in the spring, and after they 
have grown five or six inches high, I transplant them 
and find they do much better than when raised in the 
usual way." This would seem to show that it was this 
man's practice to set his orchard from seedlings of the 
first season's growth. These were doubtless grown in 
the orchard until one to three inches in diameter and 
were then top-grafted. Mr. Samuel Bushnell (the 
elder), who became famous as an orchardist in Salis- 
bury near the middle of the past century, made a prac- 
tice of growing his seedling trees by planting the seeds 
in his corn field with the corn. 

In the earlier reports of agricultural societies in the 
State there are interesting notes on the methods in use 
in handling apple orchards. One man in this county 
speaks of using corn cobs about his trees, while his son 
had an orchard "on which he put stones around his 
trees at a small distance from the trunk and thinks them 
beneficial to his orchard." The same writer concludes 
with the statement that "I have never, however, found 

ZST2 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

anything so good for my apple trees as top-tow laid on 
the land near the trees." What "top-tow" is can only 
be conjectured from the knowledge of the fact that flax 
was grown and retted on nearly every farm, and the 
fiber was commonly called "tow." The coarse bark of 
the plant was of little value for cloth and it seems most 
probable that this got the name of "top-tow," and being 
a waste product, could be used as a mulch around small 
trees. 

In a long list of questions submitted for answer in the 
"Transactions of the State Agricultural Society," pub- 
lished in 1802, the following will indicate the trend of 
thought relating to apples in those days: 

"What kind of apples afford the best cyder?" 

"What is the best management of apples to prepare 
them for cyder?" 

"Is it beneficial to house them in heaps until mel- 
lowed, and will this method better the quality of the 
cyder?" 

"Are grafting and innoculation [budding] of fruit 
trees in general use and the best method known?" 

"Have any means or methods been found successful 
in destroying the worms that annoy the trees or pre- 
venting the miliars from ascending the trees?" 

The ravages of insects are not confined to recent ex- 
perience. One of the worst periodic pests was the 
canker worm. In the "History of Ancient Woodbury" 

15»1 



FRUITS AND FRUIT GROWING 

it is recorded that "in 1791 the canker worms devoured 
the orchards not only here but all over the northeast- 
ern states, and their ravages were repeated the two fol- 
lowing years. Orchards standing in stiff clay soil and in 
low grounds which are wet in the spring escaped, but on 
all kinds of light and dry soil the trees were almost as 
dry on the first of June as the first of January. The 
same insect has this year [1853] attacked the orchards 
in the same manner and with the same result. The 
trees, the fifteenth of June, were as brown as in autumn, 
and almost entirely stripped of foliage. The fruit has 
been entirely ruined, although at present writing [Au- 
gust] the trees have again put on a fresh garment of 
foliage. The eye of man could not well behold a denser 
shower of vermin than these trees presented." 

One of the interesting prejudices of one hundred 
years ago, relative to orchard management, will strike 
the present-day fruit grower as queer, if not amusing. 
This was the prejudice that prevailed against the grow- 
ing of clover in the orchard. Several writers of that 
time refer to having seen or experienced injury from 
growing red clover in the orchards. One man in this 
county reports that "he liked to have ruined his orchard 
by raising crops of red clover on the land," but that 
when, on seeing his trees decaying, he conjectured the 
cause, "he left off raising the clover in his orchard, 
when it soon recovered." Another man reports similar 

[593 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

injury, but adds that when he began pasturing the 
clover the injury ceased, and his conjecture was, that 
"by carefully feeding it to keep it from having any 
bloom, it does not injure as it manifestly did when suf- 
fered to come to such maturity as to fit it for mowing. " 

To-day orchardists find that there is nothing more 
valuable to grow in the orchard than clover, providing, 
of course, it is grown at the right time of the year and 
not allowed to check, the tree growth early in the sea- 
son. The trouble experienced in the early days was 
probably due to the serious check given the growth of 
the trees in the early summer, mainly due to the large 
use of soil water by the clover. The present-day or- 
chardist cultivates his orchard lands the early part of 
the season, when the trees are growing rapidly, and thus 
conserves soil moisture; and then he often sows clover, 
during the middle or late summer, in order to check the 
growth of wood, so that it will harden before winter. 
The clover is generally plowed under early the next 
spring and serves as a fertilizer for the trees. 

In the "Report of Greenwood's (Litchfield County) 
Agricultural Society for 1845" will be found the fol- 
lowing record of varieties reported on by Thomas A. 
Miller of Torrington, including eight varieties of win- 
ter apples: "two varieties of Pippins, the Seeknofur- 
ther, Roxbury Russett, Gilliflower, Pounder, Peck's 
Sweet and Long Island Red Cheek, all fine specimens 

on 



FRUITS AND FRUIT GROWING 

of their kind." Several of these will be recognized as 
well known varieties of the present day. 

There was also a specimen of an apple by Thomas 
M. Clark, "evidently a pounder." With this apple 
there was a newly invented machine for picking apples 
consisting of a hoop made of wire attached to a handle 
with a sack suspended from the hoop resembling an eel 
pot. "The committee think it a valuable instrument for 
gathering choice fruit. Donated by the above men- 
tioned Clark." 

There are now a few bearing apple orchards in the 
county that are sixty to seventy-five years of age. Most 
of these are grafted fruit, which shows that attention 
was generally drawn to the value of the apple as food 
only within about the last hundred years. 

Practically all of the best varieties of to-day, how- 
ever, were grown more than sixty years ago. In the 
Patent Office Report for 1859 (in which division the 
first reports on agriculture were made by our govern- 
ment), T. S. Gold reports twenty varieties of apples, 
and among them nearly all of the leading varieties of 
the present day. The same impression of decay and 
decline in orchards seemed to have prevailed then as 
to-day, for Mr. Gold reports: "Within the past twenty 
years, orchards in this part of the State have declined 
rapidly, many old trees dying or ceasing to bear good 
fruit. Decay dates from the ice storm of the winter of 

[6>3 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

1855-6. Within the past ten years I have planted five 
hundred trees, most of which are in tolerably thrifty 
condition and some are beginning to bear." 

The most extensive bearing orchards in the county 
to-day are found on the Gold Farm on Cream Hill in 
Cornwall, and in the towns of Morris, Litchfield, Salis- 
bury and Bridgewater. The fact has been well estab- 
lished that the higher hilltops of Connecticut, with their 
heavy loam and clay-loam soils, produce apples of un- 
surpassed flavor and keeping qualities. The higher 
elevations give less trouble from fruit diseases than the 
valleys, while the good air drainage draws the cold air 
down the hill slopes so that less injury results from late 
spring frosts. The air of the hills, being cooler than 
that of the valleys, causes the fruit to mature more 
slowly, and this gives a firmness and crispness that add 
greatly to the flavor and keeping qualities. There is no 
comparison in flavor between the fruit of our Connecti- 
cut hills and that of even the famous fruit region of 
Oregon. For several years T. S. Gold of Cornwall sent 
his apples to London, with a market more exacting than 
that of most cities in this country. To-day the fruit 
from this farm finds a ready sale in a select trade, 
mostly in New Haven and Bridgeport. 

Even the sons of sunny Italy, whose love of fruits 
runs back through many generations, have recently 
migrated to our western Connecticut hillsides, where 



FRUITS AND FRUIT GROWING 

they are likely to prove to the native stock that Litch- 
field County hills have greater possibilities in fruit cul- 
ture than we have ever dreamed. The hilltops of 
Salisbury are already being dotted with apple and peach 
orchards and the lower slopes with vineyards that give 
promise of bloom and fruitage beyond the highest ex- 
pectations of the native population. 



[63] 



CHAPTER VI 




CATTLE AND THE DAIRY 

|ERY little farm livestock was kept in the 
early days of the Colonies, though be- 
fore the time Litchfield County was set- 
tled enough had been imported from 
England to furnish draft cattle for work 
and cows to produce enough milk to meet the home de- 
mands for fresh milk and for butter and cheese. There 
were comparatively few areas suitable for hay, which 
was so necessary to provide food for the livestock dur- 
ing the long winters. As the fields were cleared of 
forest and later of rocks, the amount of fodder grown 
for winter use was increased, and the number and va- 
riety of farm animals were gradually increased. 

The first barns were hewn-timber structures, loosely 
covered, built mainly for the shelter of grain and 

C«4] 



CATTLE AND THE DAIRY 

fodder rather than for the comfortable housing of the 
cattle, and yet these heavy-timbered barns lasted for 
years. Though I do not know the oldest in the county 
by any means, yet I know of one standing, sound and 
good, which sheltered a part of a company of Hessians 
when they marched down through Litchfield County 
after the defeat at Saratoga in 1777. The main struc- 
ture was flanked, oftentimes, by open sheds where the 
cattle and sheep could take shelter and be foddered. 

As we have noted, the early plan of settlement ar- 
ranged for the commons around which were the home- 
stead plots, with an outlying farm to be later improved 
and reclaimed. After the danger from Indians and 
wild beasts became lessened it is probable that the out- 
lying area was often utilized as summer pasturage for 
young stock— a custom still continued. 

The town of Woodbury early set aside a common 
pasture. "At a lawful town meeting the 8th of March, 
1705, it was voted and agreed that all the bare hill and 
ragland from the highway to the westside through pop- 
lar meadow, down to the highway from Whiteoak 
through Sawteeth, we say all that is now common land 
unlaid out, is and shall be sequestered land for common, 
for the feed of sheep and other cattle forever, for the 
use of the inhabitants in gen'l." A pretty extensive 
pasture, and yet, if it is still "forever kept," it must be 
all too small for the flocks and herds of Woodbury. 

[65] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

Helen Evertson Smith says that in 1672 the bequest 
of a cow and heifer was esteemed of more than ordi- 
nary value. Trumbull gives the value of a good milch 
cow about 1640 as thirty pounds. The work of a 
"paire of Oxen with tacklin" was held to be worth two 
shillings and five pence for "six howers" in winter and 
"eight howers" the rest of the year, eight hours making 
the full day's work for cattle except in heavy upland 
plowing, when "six howers" were considered enough. 
"A man's working hours were reckoned from sun to 
sun in summer and from six to six in winter; but the 
cattle were more precious than men." 

For a long time there seems to have been little at- 
tempt at butter making, and in the early days so much 
salt was put into it as to make it scarcely palatable as 
an article of diet. In one of Mrs. Austin's books of 
early New England life, she makes the house-mother 
put a pound ball of butter on a spit, and, deftly turning 
it at exactly the right distance from the fire, constantly 
sprinkle it with flour until it is a great brown crackling 
toothsome mass, which she serves as a hearty treat for 
her goodman's supper. 

When the supply of stock was increased enough to 
warrant, butter and cheese were made in the summer to 
supply the family for the year. Cattle kept for dairy 
purposes were at first limited to the needs of the family. 
The family cows were not expected to produce milk 

[66] 



CATTLE AND THE DAIRY 

more than six or seven months after calving, and only 
at that season of the year when nature provided an 
abundance of pasture feed. All the grains grown were 
needed to support the family. The coarse fodders that 
were harvested whenever the work could be done, were 
the chief food of livestock. The haying season gen- 
erally lasted from the time the rye and wheat harvest 
was finished until the corn was ready to cut. With 
loosely constructed stables and with woody, coarse fod- 
ders that could barely sustain life as the main source of 
feed, such a thing as winter dairying was never heard 
of, and the good housewife was fortunate if she got 
milk enough in winter to feed the young children. 

In the early days of the colonists there was no im- 
proved livestock in the sense that we think of improved 
stock to-day. The cattle and sheep brought over from 
England, where they were accustomed to a milder cli- 
mate, did not prosper as in their native country. It is 
said that the farm animals that were raised here, for 
the first two or three generations, were smaller and not 
as well developed in their useful qualities as those im- 
ported. This was probably due to the severe climate, 
poor shelter, rough pastures and the poor quality of 
the dried fodder. The natural grasses were not as 
nutritious as those later introduced from Europe, and 
the clovers were at first entirely unknown, as this was a 
crop of European origin. 

[67] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

In order to be able to recognize his cattle each settler 
had his "ear mark," which was registered in the town 
records, and in case an unknown animal was found it was 
reported and a description was "posted" for recogni- 
tion by the owner. 

While distinct breeds of cattle, sheep and horses 
were being developed in England and other European 
countries during the middle part of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, we have no records of any of these breeds being 
imported to our shores until near the close of the eigh- 
teenth and the early part of the nineteenth century. 
Litchfield County can justly claim credit for early be- 
coming interested in the introduction and development 
of two breeds of improved stock that proved of great 
value to the country. These were Devon cattle and 
Merino sheep. A few specimens of the famous breed 
of cattle that later made Litchfield County famous for 
its fine working oxen, were first brought to Maryland 
in 1 793 or 1 794, and a few years later Lemuel Hurlburt 
of Winchester bought a famous bull and a little later 
several heifers from these early importations. These 
choice specimens were the foundation stock of a valu- 
able herd, and their progeny was gradually dissemi- 
nated throughout the county and the State. The 
Devons proved to be hardy, rugged animals, well suited 
to our rigorous climate, and many of them had good 
dairy qualities. Their distinctively valuable quality, 

[68] 



CATTLE AND THE DAIRY 

however, was their adaptability for use as working cat- 
tle. Nearly every male calf was saved and reared for 
this purpose. The success attained in subduing our 
rough hill lands can be ascribed, in no small degree, to 
the sturdy qualities of this valuable breed. They proved 
to be not only rugged but teachable, quick in action, and 
very strong in proportion to their size, all of which 
were decidedly valuable qualities for working cattle. 

Near the middle of the nineteenth century Litchfield 
County fairs were famous for their fine "strings" of 
working oxen. It was no uncommon occurrence to see 
town "strings" of more than one hundred pairs shown 
at the fair at the county seat. Of these cattle the hand- 
somest and most admired were the Devons because of 
their solid red color and fine forms. Choice herds of 
Devons were also developed on the farm of Mr. Peck 
at Watertown and by the elder Dr. Buell of Litchfield. 
The latter herd has never lost its identity, as the pres- 
ent Dr. Buell keeps up a valuable dairy of this breed 
and still finds ready sale for all the steers he can raise. 
This herd to-day shows exceptionally good milking 
qualities. The milk is above medium richness as re- 
gards fat and is considered very valuable as a food 
for infants and invalids. 

In the early days every farmer raised his own beef 
and pork, and it was no uncommon thing for the farmer 
with a large family to "put down" five or six barrels of 

C69] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

pork, besides packing or freezing several beeves for 
home consumption. Beef cattle could be grown and 
fattened on the hill pastures, and a little late-cut hay or 
corn fodder would carry them over winter. Improved 
types of beef cattle, however, were little known until 
after the first quarter of the last century. Following 
the introduction of the Devons, soon came fine speci- 
mens of the Shorthorns, and later the Herefords, com- 
monly known as the "white faces." These two breeds 
did much to improve the quality of the beef, and it was 
no uncommon sight to see large droves of sleek beef 
cattle being driven from this county to New Haven and 
Bridgeport for use in these markets, or for shipment to 
New York. 

The Durham breed of cattle (later known as Short- 
horns) had beef qualities that early led to their use on 
many farms. It was found, too, that some families or 
strains of this breed were excellent milkers, especially 
for the first six months of lactation, and many good 
dairies of grade Shorthorns were developed in the 
towns of Goshen, Litchfield, Watertown and Wood- 
bury. The Ayrshires, too, early attracted attention for 
their heavy milking qualities, and large herds of the 
grades of these two breeds were early developed in 
connection with the cheese industry. 

About the middle of the last century, following the 
settling of central and northern New York and Ver- 

Do] 



CATTLE AND THE DAIRY 

mont, the "droving" (driving) of young cattle from 
these States each fall became a big business. They 
were commonly brought to Connecticut as two-year- 
olds, and by feeding one winter with coarse fodder and 
grain they made a sufficient gain to pay the "cost of 
keep," were the right age to be fattened on the rich 
pastures the next season, and were ready to be mar- 
keted early the following fall. There was always a 
demand for beef, and beef cattle could be driven long 
distances to market, while there was relatively little de- 
mand for dairy products and poor facilities for their 
transportation. This gave cattle of the beef type a 
prominence over what we now know as the dairy type. 
Down to 1850 nearly every family living in the more 
populous centers kept at least one cow and thus pro- 
duced their own milk and butter. Such a thing as the 
village milkman was unknown except in large cities of 
the State, such as Hartford and New Haven. There 
was little demand for milk and butter in the larger 
towns until after the middle of the last century. 

The domestic cheese industry, however, early found 
an important place in our farming. Our southern coast 
towns and the West Indies made a market for cheese 
that this country could supply more easily than Eng- 
land, and with the development of the coast shipping 
trade there was opened up a good market for cheese. 
Then, too, cheese was a product that could be held 

C7i] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

many months without deterioration and would remain 
firm for long shipment to warm climates. Butter, on 
the other hand, would deteriorate with age and could 
not be handled at all for a southern trade except in win- 
ter. 

For many years the making of butter was limited al- 
most entirely to the family supply and was confined to 
the months of June and September. The butter from 
the spring and early summer pasturage was esteemed 
of especially fine flavor, while that of the cooler months 
of the fall was thought to have better keeping qualities. 
As the use of bacteria cultures had not been discovered, 
their part in the production of fine flavor was not yet 
recognized. When one considers the conditions of 
barn and stable, the wonder grows that butter would 
keep at all. One reason why good butter was made was 
doubtless because during the butter-making season the 
cattle were kept in the open practically the whole time. 
Even the milking was done in the barnyard or in a small 
enclosure in a corner of the pasture. Thus there was 
little chance for contamination by undesirable forms of 
bacteria, and the housewife had discovered the neces- 
sity of scrupulous cleanliness in the case of all milk 
utensils in order to make good butter. 

The milk was drawn into open wooden pails, strained 
and set in wooden buckets or later in earthen crocks or 
tin pans. Sometimes a spring house or milk room was 



CATTLE AND THE DAIRY 

provided, but quite as often the receptacles were set on 
the cooler side of the buttery, if it had one, and were 
left undisturbed until the milk was lobbered. Then the 
thick, leathery cream was taken off with a spoon, or, in 
the very early days, with a shell. It was stored in a 
stone crock to await churning day. 

The earliest type of churn in Connecticut was prob- 
ably merely a deep crock, and the mass was stirred with 
a wooden paddle until the fat grains separated from 
the milk. A little later came the tall dasher churn, 
worked up and down; then the churn with revolving 
dasher. Mr. E. S. Stevens of East Canaan has a churn 
which has four wooden paddles inside to beat the cream. 
It was bought from a man who brought it on his back 
all the way from Newburg, N. Y. When the butter 
came the mass was taken out and put into a wooden 
bowl and worked either with the hands or with wooden 
paddles until all the buttermilk was extracted. 

Various old-time suggestions as to the making and 
keeping of butter follow: 

Transactions of the Agricultural Society, 
printed in 1802. 

"To Preserve Butter: Take butter made in May or 
beginning of June and, being perfectly sweet, roll it in 
rolls of two or three pounds; after carefully extracting 
the milk and properly seasoning it, put into the vessel 

[73] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

in which it is to be kept. Make a brine, boil it, and 
skim it till it begins to crystallize and when it is per- 
fectly cold cover the butter with it and carefully cover 
the vessel from the air; it will keep good during the 
summer. M. Chaney." 



From the Report of the Connecticut State 
Agricultural Society, i8$g. 

"Two tubs butter presented by E. A. Phelps were 
manufactured in Colebrook, Litchfield County, churned 
from the milk. The dairy consists of twelve cows; the 
churning is performed every day. The churn used is a 
large dasher churn holding forty to fifty gallons, which, 
with a thermometer, combines all the advantages of any 
churn now in use. Butter taken from the churn is 
washed in pure spring water, which does away with the 
necessity of working the butter too much— the great 
fault of most butter makers. No ingredient is used ex- 
cept pure rock salt to give it flavor or for its preserva- 
tion. The tubs used are made of white hemlock, a kind 
of timber devoid of all flavor and perfectly sweet. The 
tubs are soaked some three weeks in a strong brine be- 
fore packing. When they are full they are set away in 
a common cellar and the butter is marketed in Novem- 
ber and December to private families. No cheese is 
made from the dairy and no difference is made in price 

[74] 



CATTLE AND THE DAIRY 

throughout the season. I have eaten butter of this 
manufacture two years old, sweet and good. The churn- 
ing is performed from twelve to fourteen hours after 
milking. The hand is never allowed to come in contact 
with the butter. E. A. P." 

U P.S. I know of no other dairy in the State where 
butter is made by the same process." 



From the Same Report. 

"Lakeville, Conn. 

"To the Committee of Conn. Agrl. Soc. on Butter: 

"This butter was made from a dairy of five cows. 
Cows feed in old pasture, stabled and soiled night and 
morning with grass or corn fodder. Milk kept in tem- 
perature varying from fifty-five to sixty degrees. 
Churned at sixty degrees. Milk is skimmed before 
sour; cream churned every other day while still sweet. 
Salted, at first working, with three-fourths of an ounce 
to a pound. Butter worked three times, being careful 
not to work it enough at any time to make it oily. 

"Mrs. Ashbel Landon." 

During the hot part of the summer, when there 
was increasing difficulty in getting butter "to come," 
the housewife utilized the milk supply for making 

[753 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

cheese. Every farm was a small cheese factory. The 
milk was brought in at night, strained and set. Very 
frequently the cream was taken off in the morning and 
used either for making a small churning of butter or in 
cooking. 

If the cream was not taken off it was thoroughly 
stirred in and the milk was then brought to a lukewarm 
heat. The morning's milk was strained and left until 
the animal heat escaped, then the two were mixed and 
as much rennet added as would turn it to a curd. I find 
no definite measure for the amount of rennet. The ex- 
perienced cheese makers must have known subcon- 
sciously when they had enough for the amount of milk. 
The curd was supposed to set in one-half to three-quar- 
ters of an hour; then the smooth white mass was cut 
into cubes with a broad-bladed wooden knife. After 
cutting, the curd was left for half an hour or so to let 
the whey separate, and then the whey was dipped off 
and the curd again cut, this time usually into cubes 
about an inch in size. After a good deal of the whey had 
been dipped off the curd was ladled into a cheese basket 
to drain. The draining was quite complete. Then the 
curd was returned to the tub and thoroughly scalded 
with hot whey "until it squeaked," when it was ready 
for the final draining, the salting and the press. The 
rule for salt varies from "salt to taste" to "a teacupful 
of Liverpool salt to ten pounds." 

on 



CATTLE AND THE DAIRY 

The presses were usually of the lever type and the 
weight at the end of the lever varied with the size of 
the cheese. The hoop of wood was placed on the 
grooved board, then filled with curd, the "runner" put 
on top, then the board, hoop, and cheese were slipped 
under the press. The cheese remained in press from 
twenty-four to forty-eight hours. After coming from the 
press it was oiled all over with melted butter, a cheese- 
cloth band put around it and folded neatly on the cheese- 
cloth at the top and the bottom. The cheese was then 
ready to set away to ripen in a cool, dark room— but it 
must be "turned" every day and rubbed with melted 
butter— a considerable task when the cheeses were 
many and weighed, as they often did, from twenty-five 
to thirty pounds. 

One of the earliest ventures in the marketing of 
cheese was made from Goshen — that hill town which 
afterwards became so noted for the amount and quality 
of its cheese. In the'fall of the year 1792 Alexander 
Norton, being sent south on account of his health, pur- 
chased, to sell again in the southern markets, several 
thousand pounds of cheese. The venture was so suc- 
cessful that he continued in the business. The matter 
of suitable packages for the cheese gave considerable 
trouble. Up to this time, there being only a small local 
market, no package had been required. At first he used 
sets of shelves, but these not being satisfactory, he had 

[77H 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

timber carved into the proper shape and cheese casks 
made. These later came into quite general use, but 
were not as satisfactory as the round boxes afterwards 
made for the carrying of twin cheeses, and now very 
common. This demand for a suitable carrying package 
for the cheese gave rise to a new industry, and small 
shops were built for the express purpose of making 
cheese boxes. We find that in 1839 Winchester reports 
the manufacture of 4000 cheese boxes valued at $600. 
Norfolk the same year reports the value of cheese 
boxes made as $9500, or over 60,000 boxes if they 
were rated the same as those made in Winchester. 

Annatto was first used for coloring cheese in Goshen. 
It was used in the manufacture of cheese in the home of 
this same Alexander Norton who established the south- 
ern cheese trade. At first it was used by rubbing it 
through a fine cloth into the milk, the present method 
of dissolving it not being known. The more highly 
colored cheese resulting from the use of annatto was 
much sought after, always bringing several cents more 
per pound than the uncolored cheese. The cheese in- 
dustry grew from 1807, and for many years amounted 
to 270,000 pounds a year, thus bringing to the farmers 
a considerable income. 

In 1808 a pineapple cheese from Holland being 
brought to Goshen from New York by a member of the 
Norton family, Lewis N. Norton began to make experi- 



CATTLE AND THE DAIRY 

ments in producing a similar cheese. With appliances 
of his own invention he commenced the manufacture of 
pineapple cheese in 1809, and it was continued from 
father to son on the same spot for nearly one hundred 
years. The pineapple cheese industry has now gone 
from Litchfield County but is still carried on in New 
York State by members of the Norton family. 

The method of manufacture in brief is as follows: 
The milk is heated and rennet added; the curd is put in 
small hoops and the hoops are put into a frame thirty 
to forty feet long and are lightly pressed by end pres- 
sure. When pressed and still mellow they are given 
their peculiar shape by the curd being put in a small net 
and hung up. The net gives both the shape and the 
pineapple markings. After being thoroughly dried 
they are covered with a peculiar varnish which renders 
them impervious to the air and insures their keeping in 
any climate. 

The manufacture of cheese was by no means confined 
to Goshen, although it stands as pioneer in that espe- 
cial branch of farming. In 1839 Winchester reports to 
the Secretary of State 285,000 pounds of cheese, Bark- 
hamsted 70,000, and Norfolk 283,735. The trans- 
portation of so bulky a product from the hill towns was 
quite a problem and for years could be solved only by 
team cartage. A report has come to me of a man, now 
deceased, who, in his youth, drove a mule team from 

[79] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

Winchester to New Haven, thus getting to the coast- 
wise ships part of Winchester's output of cheese. 

It would hardly be fitting to close this discussion on 
dairy products without some reference to the enor- 
mous industry of condensed milk which had its ori- 
gin in Litchfield County, although the data to draw 
from, in spite of inquiry and research, are meager. The 
first condensed milk was prepared in a very small way 
in a building still standing near the railway station in 
Winsted. The Borden Condensed Milk Company was 
organized in 1 863 and continued doing business in Win- 
sted until 1866. Afterward A. M. Gale established a 
condensary at what is now known as Burrville, in the 
town of Torrington. The old accounts note that he 
came to this particular place because of the abundance 
of pure cold water. Mr. Gale put up milk under the 
first patent for condensing milk and employing sugar in 
the process. The business was soon after removed to 
Dutchess County, N. Y. 



C8°3 



CHAPTER VII 



SHEEP AND WOOL 




LTHOUGH the records of livestock 
brought by the first settler to Litch- 
field County are very meager, it is 
no doubt true that sheep formed part of 
the early possessions of every farmer. 
To a people living in a frontier land, where winters 
were long and tedious and the distance from centers of 
trade was great, the matter of warm clothing was sec- 
ond only to the question of food. As the sheep would 
furnish material for both food and clothing, attention 
was soon turned to increasing the flocks. 

Notwithstanding the value of the sheep to the 
farmer and his family, the flocks were so slowly in- 
creased that in 1660 they were freed from taxes and 
ground was ordered cleared for their pasturage. Ten 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

years afterwards, "for the encouragement of rayseing 
sheepe," the general courts of the Colony ordered that 
every male person in the several plantations, fourteen 
years old and upwards, that was not a public officer, 
should work one day in June of each year in cutting 
down and clearing the underwood "so that there may 
be pasture," and the townsmen in the respective towns 
were "to appoint the places where they should worke, 
in the highways or commons or other places agreed 
upon." Heavy fines were threatened upon those who 
failed to comply with this ruling. 

Naturally the land was full of wild beasts which 
found mutton very much to their taste, and to rid the 
forests of these pests liberal bounties were offered by 
the various towns for the killing of wolves and bears. 
As late as 1766 it is recorded that a bear appeared in 
the city of Hartford and was killed in the south 
meadow. If bears boldly walked into the streets of the 
largest towns, what must have been their boldness in 
the more remote districts! After several years of set- 
tlement, the nuisance of wild animals being somewhat 
abated, the General Assembly frugally repealed the 
public bounty law, with the result that the ardor of the 
hunt subsided. Naturally the wolves increased, and in 
1776 we find the following bill passed by the General 
Assembly: 

"Upon the memorial of Jacob Beach, of Goshen, 



SHEEP AND WOOL 

showing to this Assembly that since the repeal of the 
late law granting a premium for destroying wolves, 
they have increased and done much damage by killing 
sheep in said Goshen, and consequently, he having ex- 
pended considerable time and money for that purpose, 
hath since the first day of May, last, taken, killed and 
destroyed three grown wolves in said Goshen; praying 
for such a sum of money to be paid him out of the pub- 
lic treasury of this State as he would have been entitled 
to receive had said act never been repealed: as per 
memorial on file : Resolved by this Assembly, that the 
memorialist have liberty to receive the sum of twelve 
pounds lawful money and the Treasurer of this State 
is hereby ordered and directed to pay the same accord- 
ingly." 

In 1786 a pack of four wolves descended on the set- 
tlement of Norfolk and eighty men went out to hunt 
them, fearing their depredations on the flocks. These 
two incidents indicate something of the natural draw- 
backs to the sheep industry from its beginning. 

That dogs were a menace to flocks even in those early 
days is evident in the ruling that in 1736 gave to the 
"sheep selectman" authority to kill dogs. In one town, 
at the town meeting held April 26, 1742, it was "Voted 
that there shall be three pounds drawn out of the town 
treasury for every grown wolf that shall be killed within 
the limits of this town, and for every wolf whelp thirty 

[83] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

shillings. And it is also voted that whosoever shall kill 
any ratel snak or snaks within the town and bring 
rattles shall have one shilling for every such snak." 

A possible reason for the lack of importation of a 
better breed of sheep or new blood to improve the old 
stock is hinted at in an essay by Dr. Jared Eliot, grand- 
son of the Apostle to the Indians. He says: "A better 
breed of sheep is what we want. The English breed of 
Cotswold sheep cannot be obtained, at least not without 
great difficulty, for wool and live sheep are contraband 
goods which all strangers are prohibited from carrying 
out on pain of having their right hand cut off." 

Following the act of 1660, which made sheep exempt 
from taxation, were other public acts, such as the pay- 
ing of a bounty for woolen cloth and the exempting of 
sheep from seizure for debt, which were designed to 
favor the growth of the sheep industry. 

Many stories both inspiring and pathetic are told in 
connection with the making of homespun in the early 
times. Although not a Litchfield County incident, the 
following will illustrate the straits and the enterprise 
which served to go toward the making of men who 
made history. "A dozen sheep and one cow comprised 
the stock, and to her yield of milk the latter added her 
service to the plow. Corn bread, milk and bean por- 
ridge were the staples of diet. The father being in- 
capacitated by illness, the mother did the work in the 



SHEEP AND WOOL 

house and helped the boys in the fields. Once, in mid- 
winter, one of the boys needed a new suit, and there 
was neither money nor wool in the house. The mother 
sheared the half-grown fleece from a sheep and in a 
week it was made into clothing. The shorn sheep, so 
generous in such need, was protected by a wrapping 
made of braided straw. They lived four miles from 
the meeting house, to which the mother and her two 
boys walked every Sunday. The boys became Samuel 
and Eliphalet Nott, one a famous preacher, one the 
president of Union College." 

The same way out of a similar difficulty is related of 
one of the Litchfield County towns, with the difference 
that the shorn sheep was provided with a dress fash- 
ioned from an old blanket. 

In the special report on the "Sheep Industry of the 
United States" it is stated: "It is probable that the first 
sheep brought to this country were of the kind common 
to England at the time and were the Wiltshire and 
Romney Marsh, the Herefordshire, the Norfolk and 
the old Southdown or Sussex sheep; at least all the 
characteristics of these breeds could be seen in the dif- 
ferent flocks in the eastern States at the beginning of 
the present century [1801]." The late T. S. Gold 
characterizes the sheep of the early part of the century 
in Litchfield County as being "long-legged, scraggy ani- 
mals, with thin, coarse wool," and adds: "It naturally 

[85] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

follows that the choice, fine-wooled sheep became im- 
mensely popular." 

To Colonel David Humphreys, of New Haven, is 
due the credit of bringing to Connecticut the first 
Merino sheep, the introduction of which did so much 
for the wool industry of the State. So great a benefit 
was this considered that the fact is recorded upon his 
tombstone in an eloquent Latin epitaph, which states 
that he was a man of great learning, member of various 
distinguished societies, a friend of Washington and 
ambassador to the courts of Portugal and Spain. The 
Latin runs : "Iberia reversus natale solum vellere vere 
aureo ditavit" ; translated, "On his return from Spain 
he enriched his native land with the true golden fleece." 

The Merino, an especially fine-wooled sheep, is 
thought to have come from Asia Minor, following the 
line of civilization along the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean into Spain. For years the breed was cherished 
in Spain as one of its choicest treasures, and as long as 
Spain retained her power as a nation the exportation of 
the sheep was forbidden. A few were smuggled out of 
the borders, and some were given as kingly favors to va- 
rious countries. A detailed account of the importation 
of the Merinos into this country, however interesting it 
might be, would be too long for these pages. Suffice it 
to say that the introduction of this breed into the farm- 
ing regions of northwestern Connecticut stimulated, 



SHEEP AND WOOL 

more than anything else, the wool industry. Colonel 
Humphreys, himself a woolen manufacturer, realized 
more keenly than the average farmer the necessity of 
producing a finer grade of wool. The first importation, 
in 1803, was about seventy head and these were leased 
or rented out to farmers. They were used mainly in 
trying to improve the native sheep, but owing to our 
cold, rugged climate and the poor shelter afforded, the 
pure-bred animals did not prosper at first, and for some 
reason failed to impress their good qualities on the 
native stock, when crossed with them. Larger importa- 
tions were made between 1808 and 18 10, and some of 
these laid the foundation of valuable strains of Ameri- 
can Merinos, especially the Delaine Merinos that later 
became famous in Ohio. 

The strain of this famous breed that gained the 
greatest fame was the so-called Vermont Merinos, 
which became renowned in that State nearly fifty years 
after their first introduction into Connecticut. This 
strain of Merinos a Litchfield County man holds the 
credit for preserving and developing in their full purity. 
Thomas Atwood of Woodbury, recognizing the possi- 
bilities of the breed, bought several head from Colonel 
Humphreys's first importation and continued to breed 
and develop them as a pure strain for over thirty years. 

About 1835 Mr. Hammond of Middlebury, Ver- 
mont, came to Connecticut in search of a pure strain of 

[87H 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

Merino blood and decided that what Mr. Atwood had 
developed most nearly represented his ideal, and he 
took several head with him to northern Vermont. 
Within the next twenty years this Hammond strain of 
Merinos became world-renowned and brought almost 
fabulous prices for those times. For instance, for one 
famous ram of the Atwood strain Mr. Hammond re- 
fused five thousand dollars, saying that he "could not 
afford to sell his best until he was ready to go out of the 
business of breeding." 

Beginning with the peace of Ghent in 1815, at the 
close of the second war with England, the tariff on wool 
having been removed, there was a decline in the fine 
wool industry until about 1825. This will account in 
part for the failure to develop more generally the 
Merino breed in New England during the first twenty 
years following their introduction. Their impress, 
however, was fixed on a few flocks, and when conditions 
again became favorable for the development of woolen 
manufactures, the Merino type of sheep was easily re- 
established. Beginning about 1825, there was a period 
of some twenty years when the fine wool industry of 
western Connecticut attained a high degree of develop- 
ment. Dairying had not been introduced beyond the 
needs of the farmer's family, as there were very few 
cities to demand dairy products; but for a good grade 
of wool, both for household manufacture and for the 

[88] 



SHEEP AND WOOL 

rapidly increasing wool factories, there was an ever in- 
creasing demand. In towns along the southern edge of 
the county were kept several flocks of Merinos that 
were developed from the earlier importations, made at 
the instigation of Colonel Humphrey, while many im- 
portations of Saxony Merinos were made between 

1820 and 1840. . 

In 1824 the Saxony Merinos were introduced into 
the State and most of the flocks crossed with them. Mr. 
Samuel Scoville of Salisbury commenced a Saxony flock 
that year and maintained it for many years. Mr. 
Hurlburt of Winchester, in connection with Henry 
Watson of East Windsor, purchased some of the best 
Saxons of the first importations; and Charles B. Smith, 
of Walcottville, at a later day, made importations from 
the best Saxony flocks. In 1846 John Ward of Salis- 
bury had a flock of seven hundred Saxons, with fleeces 
averaging two and one-half pounds. R. G. Camp of 
Litchfield had one hundred and seventy Saxons, derived 
mostly from the flock of Charles B. Smith. The wool 
was very fine, averaging about three pounds to the 
sheep, and sold for sixty-six or sixty-eight cents per 

pound. . 

About 1850, during the time when the wool industry 
was at its height, wool buyers went everywhere through 
the country. Among these was John Brown of Har- 
per's Ferry fame. He and his partner, Tom Swift of 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

Amenia, who was known to his associates as Saxony 
Swift, went through this and neighboring counties, buy- 
ing and trading both wool and sheep. 

The home manufacture of wool is as follows : When 
the shad bush was in blossom, the sheep should be 
sheared. This was done by the men, the boys attending 
to the preliminary washing and having great larks 
dragging the reluctant sheep into the water and giving 
it a good scrubbing— often getting wetter than the 
sheep. On the clean barn floor the shearer took his 
seat and skilfully held the struggling victim with his 
feet and legs while he clipped the fleece with the spring 
shears, which, by the by, have altered in pattern scarcely 
a whit in two hundred years. When the flock was 
sheared, the wool was scoured with lye to remove the 
yelk; then, before carding, was slightly oiled to aid in 
straightening the fibers. In the early days the wool was 
dyed in the fleece, but after the establishment of the 
carding mills the dyeing process was deferred until after 
the yarn was spun. There is a tradition that the wool 
of black sheep was especially in vogue with the Quakers 
because it required none of the embellishment of the 
dye-pot. 

The process of dyeing was sometimes a complicated 
one, requiring manipulation of dye-pots and no end of 
mordants. Blue was a favorite color, and the indigo 
dye-pot was a part of the equipment of every kitchen. 

C9o] 



SHEEP AND WOOL 

I have been told that the deep purple paper in which the 
old-time cone-shaped sugar loaves were wrapped was 
always carefully saved and used for dyeing, especially 
fine lamb's wool, which was designed for making gar- 
ments for the baby. 

Early experiments were made in growing various 
European plants for dyestuffs, especially in the South. 
There is little on record of such attempts in Litchfield 
County, but in the history of Goshen mention is made 
of the fact that Lewis Mills Norton, one of the fore- 
most men of his time, raised teasels for fulling cloth, 
and "woad, a fermentative addition to indigo in the 
pastel vat. Woad was raised to the amount of $1000 
annually during part of the years between 18 19 and 

1844." 

It is quite possible that from this attempt to raise the 
teasels for the fulling of the cloth came the wild 
teasels which are occasionally found throughout the 
county. 

In connection with dyestuffs it might not be amiss to 
suggest that the occasional plants of the wild mignon- 
ette (Resida lutola) may be the persisting descendants 
sprung from some early attempt to cultivate the plant 
for the sake of the good yellow which was obtained 
from an infusion of this plant. One common name, 
dyer's weed, alludes to its coloring properties. 

After cleaning thoroughly and dyeing, the wool was 

C91] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

ready for carding — a constant evening occupation. The 
hand cards were simply light, handled boards, of conve- 
nient size, on which was firmly fixed a piece of leather 
stuck full of fine wire teeth. These cards were usually 
the product of the farmer's leisure hours in the long 
winter evenings. 

The manipulator of the cards would hold one in her 
left hand resting on her knee with the handle from her. 
With her right hand she would detach from the fleece 
enough of the uncombed wool to make a roll, catch it 
lightly back and forth on the card, then seize the other 
card in her right hand and deftly comb it until the 
tangled fibers were straightened; then by a dexterous 
movement she would coax it into a light, fluffy roll ready 
for the wheel. It was fascinating work to watch, 
though monotonous to do, and the finished product was 
always a joy to the children, who had often to be re- 
proved for slyly pinching or fondling the fleecy rolls. 

The establishment of carding mills was about the 
first step toward lightening the labor of the home. 
For many years the more conservative of the women 
refused to send out the wool to be carded, claiming that 
the rolls were more uneven and harder to run into a 
firm, even yarn than the hand-made rolls, yet by 1870 
hand-carding was almost a lost art. 

This date may seem a very recent one, and some 
may wonder if the home manufacture of woolen prod- 



SHEEP AND WOOL 

ucts did indeed come down to such recent times. Un- 
doubtedly most of the manufacture of woolen goods, 
especially of all kinds of woolen cloth, had been taken 
from the homes into small factories, as we shall pres- 
ently see, but during and after the Civil War many 
farms produced their own wool, and it was spun at 
home into yarn for the stout, home-knit stockings, tip- 
pets, wristers, and mittens. 

An old lady, who died many years ago, told me in my 
childhood as we stood by a great thorn tree near her 
home, that when she was a girl, about 1830, after the 
sheep were sheared the fleeces were put in a great linen 
sheet and were firmly pinned into a bundle to send to the 
carding mill. "And because pins were scarce in those 
days we girls always used to come down to this thorn 
bush and cut off the long, slender thorns to fasten the 
bundle. Father never cut this bush when he trimmed 
the roadsides." 

The wool, when back from the carding mill, was 
deftly spun by the women of the household on the great 
wheel — and a more graceful occupation never engaged 
the attention of woman. Back and forth the spinner 
would walk, holding the roll lightly in her left hand, 
while with her right she kept the wheel in motion; and 
the whir of the wheel and the hum of the spindle, as it 
wound upon itself the just made yarn, made a pleasant 
accompaniment to the song of the spinner. There 

IT 93 3 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

seemed to be something in this creative work, this mak- 
ing of a new thing out of the raw material, which 
inspired the song— at least I never knew a spinner 
working in her home by herself who didn't sing as she 
wrought. 

After the yarn was spun and skeined it was ready 
to be wound, and for this purpose the skein was put 
upon the swifts, whence it could be wound into balls 
or on shuttles for weaving. Usually the cloth for men's 
use was the plain homespun of whose durability an old 
man, who was one of a large family, said: "Mother'd 
weave a web for the oldest boy's suit; when he outgrew 
it, it was handed down to the next, and so all the six had 
a chance at it. When the youngest boy had outgrown 
it and the suit was still as good as ever, the Lord 
created the moth to eat it up." 

In the very earliest times the cloth was worn as it 
came from the loom, there being no means of dressing 
it. In later days fulling mills were erected in various 
parts of the country and the fabric was given a crude 
dressing. 

The old process of fulling is thus described: "The 
fulling of cloth is commenced by scouring the fabric in 
water holding in suspension an aluminous clay called 
fuller's earth, or other detergent, to absorb the grease. 
It is then washed and beaten by heavy wooden mallets 
in a trough, soap and hot water being copiously used in 

[94] 



SHEEP AND WOOL 

the operation, whereby the cloth acquires body and 
thickness by a shrinking or condensing of the web close 
and compact, and increases its beauty and firmness. 
The teasels were used to 'pick up the nap.' " 

Aside from cloth for family wear, the mother and sis- 
ters wove the heavy coverlet of intricate design which 
is now regarded as such a treasure, lighter rose 
blankets, soft flannel and various stuffs of mixed wool 
and linen. They were great knitters, too, and many are 
the stories of the mittens knit before breakfast to take 
the place of those lost the day before. 

The washing, preparatory to the animals' clipping, 
was a task that always interested the boys. Wool in 
those days was sold washed and sometimes scoured, 
and particularly if the wool was wanted for home use 
the scouring was necessary. The washing removed 
most of the winter's accumulation of hay seed, chaff and 
dirt, while the scouring was designed for removing the 
grease or yelk. The loss by the removal of these mate- 
rials was known as the shrinkage. This is a variable 
factor with wool in general, but with the Merino sheep, 
whose wool is always very oily, the shrinkage wa^ never 
less than one-half. The rapid development of woolen 
factories, all over New England, provided a ready sale 
for all the wool the farmer wished to sell. As late as 
1840, homespun was the common clothing worn by the 
members of nearly every family in the rural towns. 

[95] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

With the opening up of the great central West, and 
later with the development of ranching in the far West, 
the price of wool dropped and the Eastern farmer 
found himself unable to compete with the wool grown 
on these vast areas of cheap land, and so, in many sec- 
tions, he began to turn his attention to dairy farming. 

The passing of the animal with the "golden hoof" 
had its drawbacks. Sheep, by browsing, kept the brush 
in check, and this, together with the fineness and the 
high fertilizing value of their droppings, made them 
the best class of livestock to improve pastures. The 
Goshen hardhack (Potentilla fruticosa) , a hardy and 
persistent shrub that is now filling up many pastures to 
the exclusion of grasses and clovers, was not known in 
Litchfield County until after the sheep industry waned. 
To-day it is the greatest pasture pest on many acres of 
land. 

Much of the land in this county is better suited to 
sheep than to any other livestock. One drawback to 
keeping sheep is the poor fences; the stone walls which 
were once efficient barriers have now become dilapi- 
dated and the wooden fences also are often in a state of 
decay. Where modern, woven-wire fencing is adopted 
there is yet a valuable place for this class of livestock. 

As a means of furnishing the home with a source of 
meat, sheep will again have a useful place on many 
farms, and with the growing influx of summer residents 

[96] 



SHEEP AND WOOL 

a fine quality of lamb is already in demand. It should 
be realized that the fine-wooled type of sheep no longer 
has a place here, because the chief demand is for a fine 
quality of lamb and mutton. Several of the so-called 
Down breeds are noted for their early lambs and their 
wool is of fair quality and quantity. 

By buying up and fencing some of the rougher areas 
of Litchfield County and stocking the same with a good 
grade of mutton sheep, a large business could be devel- 
oped with such cities as New Haven, Bridgeport and 
Waterbury, with a prospect of good returns on the in- 
vestment. 



[97] 



CHAPTER VIII 




THE MODERN FARM 

ARMING has so changed in the past fifty 
years that one almost needs a new vocabu- 
lary to express the operations of the farm 
as now conducted. Diversity is still the 
rule in Litchfield County, but is modified 
on most farms by having a leading specialty. In the 
majority of cases this specialty is dairying, which in 
general means the production of market milk, either 
for local markets or for shipment to New York. This 
leading specialty is commonly supplemented by the pro- 
duction of potatoes and other garden truck, by the 
production of small and large fruits for market, or, in 
the Housatonic valley, by the growing of tobacco. On 
many farms poultry forms an important part of the 
cash income of the farmer, and wherever dairy by-prod- 



THE MODERN FARM 

ucts are available as poultry feed, this branch of farm- 
ing proves especially profitable. 

On account of the ready access by rail to the New 
York markets, the shipping of milk early became an 
important branch of farming. A New York milk com- 
pany established shipping stations along the Housatonic 
Railway as early as 1870, and since then this county has 
been an important source of supply for that city. The 
milk shipping industry and the cooperative creamery 
proved a great boon to the farmers of Litchfield 
County, as well as to the rest of New England. It re- 
moved from the household the laborious task of caring 
for the milk and of manufacturing it into butter 
or cheese. No more important improvement has come 
to our farm life than this, for with the manufacture of 
the dairy products added to the ordinary duties of the 
household, the engrossing labor and cares of our early 
farm mothers were certainly burdensome. It is within 
the memory of some of the older mothers, too, that all 
of the cooking had to be done in the open fireplace and 
all of the baking in the big oven, which had to have its 
walls thoroughly heated by burning hardwood in it, 
after which it must be cleaned out preparatory to bak- 
ing the pies and cakes. 

To-day many farm homes are as well equipped as the 
city flat. Not a few farm houses have hot and cold 
water throughout, while furnace or steam heat and a 

C99H 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

well equipped bathroom are common, and sometimes, if 
power lines pass the farm, electric lighting is installed. 
The rural mail system, which provides for daily deliv- 
ery, has made general the taking of daily papers, while 
magazines and other forms of wholesome circulating 
literature are found in nearly every country home. The 
advent of good roads, accompanied by the automobile, 
is providing means for freer social intercourse between 
families in the country and between the country folk 
and their city cousins. 

On the farm proper the sulky plow, the wheel har- 
row, the grain seeder, the horse corn-planter, the potato 
planter, the mowing machine, the horse rake, the hay 
loader, the reaper, the corn harvester and the potato 
digger have greatly reduced the hand labor required in 
performing the various operations of fitting the land, of 
planting, of cultivating and of harvesting. In fact, so 
general is the use of machine power that the farmer of 
to-day needs to be a good mechanic to handle his farm- 
ing operations to the best advantage. 

As has already been pointed out, the chief branch of 
farming throughout the county to-day is dairying. Con- 
necticut has long been known as a dairy State. Her 
many thriving towns and cities provide a home market 
for milk, butter and cheese, while on account of her 
location, midway between New York and Boston, her 
surplus milk quickly reaches these large centers. Up to 

C IO °3 



THE MODERN FARM 

about 1880 the making of cheese in factories and the 
home production of butter and cheese were the chief 
branches of dairying. Even ten or fifteen years later, 
with the exception of farms near the railroads, cheese 
was an important dairy product in our State and 
county. Cooperative creameries were started about 
1880, and these, within a few years, almost entirely 
supplanted the cheese factories and the home manufac- 
ture of cheese and butter. From 1880 to 1895, co- 
operative creameries increased in the State from less 
than half a dozen to over sixty. Since about 1900, 
however, there has been a steady decline in butter-mak- 
ing, with a constant increase in the shipping of milk. 

Coincident with the changes in the leading branches 
of farming practised within the county came changes in 
the class of cattle kept. As soon as the growing of beef 
and of sheep, on the cheaper but more fertile lands of the 
West, made the production of these meats of doubtful 
profit in New England, our farmers were led to see the 
advantages of the purely dairy type of cattle. A com- 
bination of the beef type and the dairy type of cattle 
might have been valuable up to the days of cheap West- 
ern beef, but not after that. Prior to about 1870 the 
Shorthorn and the Devon breeds of cattle held a promi- 
nent place in Litchfield County, but with the lack of 
profit in beef and with cheaper horse labor, these breeds 
no longer filled the requirements of our farmers. 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

Connecticut early became the American home of 
some of the best of the old-world dairy breeds. While 
the Jersey was introduced into the State as early as 
1 85 i, it was not until between 1865 and 1870 that this 
breed and her sister type, the Guernsey, began to be no- 
ticed in the dairy annals of the State, particularly in 
Hartford County. Noted herds of Jerseys were estab- 
lished in the early seventies at Echo Farm in Litchfield 
and by the Eldridges of Norfolk, while others became 
more or less interested in a small way. Following the 
introduction of creameries, there was a diffusion of 
Jersey blood throughout the herds supplying these fac- 
tories. This was due to the fact that quality rather 
than quantity of milk was the basis of profit in selling 
through the creamery. 

In the milk-shipping sections, however, a different 
condition prevailed. Milk shipped to New York was, 
for many years, ungraded, as far as richness in fat was 
concerned. This naturally led to the keeping of such 
cattle as would produce quantity of milk rather than 
quality, as the two characteristics are rarely found in 
a single type of cattle. Holsteins had for many years 
been bred for high milk production on the rich low- 
lands of Holland, and early in the days of milk-shipping 
they became prominent in the Hudson and the Harlem 
valleys and soon after were introduced into Litchfield 
County. To-day no breed is more popular among 

[102] 



THE MODERN FARM 

those who are shipping milk to New York than the 
"black and white" cattle. The Ayrshire breed is one 
that, in the cheese days, held a high place in the estima- 
tion of dairymen, but as to quantity of milk alone she 
cannot compete with the Holstein, and the quality of 
her milk will not place her in the same class as the 
Jerseys and the Guernseys. However, with an increas- 
ing tendency to buy milk according to a standard of 
four per cent fat, the Ayrshire is now gaining in popu- 
larity. No breed furnishes a better grade of milk for 
infants, and to-day certified milk farms are searching 
the country for cows of this breed. 

One other breed of cattle that has, within the past 
twenty years, become popular in the county is the 
Guernsey. This is sometimes known as the "rich man's 
cow." No breed has become more popular on country 
estates where beauty of form and quality of product are 
the chief requisites. As a business farmer's cow, where 
high testing milk is wanted, there is little difference 
between the Guernsey and the Jersey. The rich yellow 
milk of the Guernsey, however, makes her a special 
favorite among those who want a choice family prod- 
uct. Several farms in the county have choice specimens 
of this breed, and one farm at least has attained some- 
what of a national reputation as the home of noted 
Guernseys. 

The modern dairy barn is as much of an evolution as 

C io 3] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

the dairy breeds. In the early days of the dairy indus- 
try it was supposed that it must be almost entirely a 
summer business— that if the cow produced a liberal 
flow of milk from April to December, she must of ne- 
cessity "rest from her labors" the balance of the year. 
Yet we know that modern conditions of stabling and of 
feeding have changed all this, so that now milk is pro- 
duced as readily in winter as in summer. This has been 
brought about, in a great measure, by improved meth- 
ods of housing. The barn, that let in the first rays of 
the morning sun through its many cracks, and that, in 
the same way, let in the northern blasts and the drifting 
snows, is a thing of the past. Closely constructed and 
yet well ventilated barns are the homes of our modern 
breeds of livestock. Water flowing into inside troughs 
has been generally substituted for the hole in the ice at 
a near-by pond or brook; while modern facilities for 
reducing labor are a part of the equipment of every 
well arranged dairy barn. The introduction of the silo 
has increased the profit in the winter production of 
milk, as it supplies the cheapest form of succulent feed 
for use in the winter season. While the cheap labor 
available on some of the European dairy farms may 
make the growing and use of root crops profitable, 
under our labor conditions well grown and well pre- 
served silage is more economical. 

The statement is often made in Litchfield County, as 

C I0 4] 



THE MODERN FARM 

elsewhere, that there is no profit in producing market 
milk at present wholesale prices, and yet the fact re- 
mains that many farmers are not only providing a good 
livelihood for their families, but at the same time are 
educating their children and paying off mortgages that 
earlier conditions made necessary, or that came as a 
heritage. There is no question, to-day, but that dairy 
farming provides a ready market for a large amount 
of directly non-salable farm products that can be con- 
verted into readily salable animal products and thus be 
made to return a good profit. From a business view- 
point, the conditions that are essential in establishing 
this profit are a converting machine — the dairy cow — 
well adapted to the work expected of her, and a well 
organized system of farm management for making this 
converting machine do its work efficiently. 

Those farming sections of Litchfield County that lie 
within easy reach of good markets, generally show the 
highest prosperity. This is due to the fact that a va- 
riety of farming projects can be undertaken, so that 
there will be several sources of revenue, and, further- 
more, to the fact that near-by markets provide the 
smallest cost of handling between producer and con- 
sumer. It is a well established fact that in our large 
cities about two-thirds of the cost price, to the consumer, 
of food products used is represented in the cost of 
transportation and handling, and in the profits of those 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

doing this work, thus leaving approximately one-third 
of what the consumer pays as the producer's portion. 
Where a large part of the cost of transportation and 
handling can be eliminated, as is the case with near-by 
markets, the producer's share of the retail price is 
greatly increased. In some cases, too, the farmer may 
become the retailer and so reap all of the outlay for the 
farm products that the consumer buys. 

Our home markets are a great source of revenue in 
the sale of cash crops that can be grown to supplement 
the income of the dairy. Narrow specialization is sel- 
dom the most profitable type of farming, because under 
such a system the labor of the farm is not well utilized. 
Then again, seasonal conditions may seriously reduce 
the profits from one crop or product and not from an- 
other. Dairy farming will allow for the growing of 
such supplementary market crops as garden truck, pota- 
toes, cabbage, fruit, and even hay. The nearness to 
market, the demands of the market and the type of soil 
will indicate which of these is likely to prove most 
profitable on a particular farm. On the hill lands, at 
considerable distance from the markets, many farmers 
to-day are growing, at good profit, apples of the finest 
quality, while hay always finds a ready sale, either loose 
or baled, in our manufacturing towns and cities. Pota- 
toes, cabbage and turnips are crops that can be handled 
at a considerable distance from markets, and such 

[106] 



THE MODERN FARM 

manufacturing centers as Winsted, Torrington, Water- 
bury and Danbury afford a ready market for these 
products. Poultry products, too, are in demand far 
beyond the local supply, and the cheap, rough lands of 
the county are as well suited to the keeping of poultry 
as are the highest priced lands of the valleys. Our 
working classes to-day, in city and town, are receiving 
such good wages that they are demanding the best 
grade of fruits and vegetables, put up in an attractive 
form. Thriving manufacturing towns like Winsted, 
Torrington, Waterbury and Danbury are being sup- 
plied from near-by farms with small fruits and vege- 
tables. On account of their freshness and high quality 
these products command the highest prices, and the 
producers are reaping the rewards of their skill. 

In general, to-day, those farmers who are guided by 
the demands of the markets for a high class of food 
products, and who are striving to meet these demands 
in accordance with the nature of their soils and their 
location, are prospering in the business of farming in 
Litchfield County, as elsewhere in the East. 



[>7] 



CHAPTER IX 




COUNTRY LIFE, OLD AND NEW 

HE fact that there has been a decline in 
the population of most of the strictly rural 
towns of New England has led many to 
assume that there has been general deca- 
dence in agriculture. That a decline has 
taken place in towns far from the centers of trade is 
true, but this does not mean that agriculture as a whole 
is on the decline. In fact, agriculture is more pros- 
perous than ever in sections near good markets. In 
order to understand the decline that did take place, half 
a century or more ago, in many of the rural towns of 
this county, we need to consider the general evolution in 
industrial life that was going on everywhere in our 
country. Litchfield County passed through the same 
industrial evolution between 1840 and 1870 that mani- 

[1083 



COUNTRY LIFE, OLD AND NEW 

fested itself generally in the East. The concentrating 
into large central plants of the small manufacturing in- 
dustries that had grown up throughout the rural towns 
went on rapidly during these years. This soon devel- 
oped strong industrial centers along the waterways, 
where good power was available. The railroads that 
were being built through the river valleys favored this 
concentration by affording ready means of transporta- 
tion. The hat business, that had been a household trade, 
was centered in Danbury. The tanneries that were 
general over the county, and the scythe factories of 
Salisbury, were centered in Winsted. Small silk and 
wool industries, that were at one time found in nearly 
every town, went to Winsted and Waterbury. The 
small industries that formerly helped to make the rural 
towns prosperous, thus went to build up big central 
plants. These industrial changes were the means of 
draining away much of the life and wealth of the coun- 
try towns. During this same period, too, the vast, 
cheap, fertile areas of the great Central West were 
opened for settlement. A rocky hill farm in Connecti- 
cut could be sold for a few dollars an acre and the pro- 
ceeds would establish the owner on a new, free farm of 
1 60 acres in Illinois or Iowa, every foot of which was 
tillable land. More often, the sons were attracted by 
the opportunities presented in these new fields, and 
when the old folks passed on no one was left to care for 

[ioo] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

the ancestral acres. This resulted in the return of 
many acres to a condition of forest growth, which al- 
ways follows a period of cessation in active farming. 

Thus the pressure of new and uncontrollable condi- 
tions forced many of the inhabitants of our rural towns 
to seek new fields of enterprise. The soil had not lost 
all its fertility, but competition from newer, more fertile 
and more workable fields, together with the new form 
of industrial life represented in the large towns and 
cities, had so changed the opportunities for reasonable 
returns from labor that the migration of a considerable 
portion of the inhabitants became an economic neces- 
sity. The causes, therefore, of whatever decline was 
seen in our rural towns must be looked for in the great 
industrial changes that were going on in our country as 
a whole, and in the development of new fields of com- 
petitive agriculture, rather than in the decline of our 
agriculture or the decadence of our country life. 

That the churches and schools should feel the force 
of this general decline was to be expected, but that it 
should be ascribed to a decadence in religious life would 
be as unsound as to say that the world has lost its sense 
of religious responsibility because the great powers of 
Europe are now at war. The best life of many of the 
rural towns was drained away, and has, in a measure, 
been replaced by those who have not the same sense of 
responsibility toward the church, the school and the 



COUNTRY LIFE, OLD AND NEW 

town as had their predecessors. The church and the 
school must readjust themselves to the new conditions. 
Agriculture readjusts itself to new economic conditions 
more quickly than do other rural forces. The church 
and the schools must follow its example and so plan 
their work as to fit the new environment. The social 
life of our rural towns is being developed through other 
agencies than the church. The mistake that the church 
has commonly made is in holding herself aloof from 
the life of the community, instead of being a part of it. 
In those communities where the church is the center of 
the social and the literary life of the farm folk, as is 
conspicuously the case in a few rural towns of this 
county, the hold on the religious life of the people con- 
tinues strong. The ministry must be in sympathy with 
farm life and the natural advantages of life in the open 
country in order to have the church retain its hold on 
the farm people. A special class of pastors, who know 
from experience the real problems of the farm, will be 
the logical outgrowth of any effective movement for a 
better religious life in our country towns. 

Organization is the key-note of modern farm life. 
In fact, farm life as a business and a social force is now 
being organized as never before. There was a time 
when the life of the farmer was individualistic in the 
extreme, but that time has passed. Through the va- 
rious organizations, whose function is to foster a 

[in] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

deeper insight into the advantages of special branches 
of farming, the farmer is gradually seeing the benefits 
of organized effort. Thus the Grange, the Pomologi- 
cal Society, the Dairymen's Association, the Poultry 
Association, and many other organizations are devel- 
oping a tendency, among those who are interested in 
certain specialties, to work together, as well as to learn 
from each other's experiences. 

The farm families of Litchfield County have been 
especially fortunate in the opportunities afforded for 
education. While the public schools, probably, have 
averaged no better than in other rural sections of Con- 
necticut, secondary schools under private management 
have been more general. In the early days the rural 
academy was an educational center in nearly every town, 
and later such schools as the Gunnery, Robbins, Taft, 
Kent and Hotchkiss have offered educational advan- 
tages within the financial reach of the farmer's family. 
The movement to consolidate our public schools has 
been slow, due often to long distances and bad roads 
for transporting the children; but the general good 
roads movement is paving the way for this. The work 
of our schools, too, is slowly but surely shaping itself to 
conform to the life of the rural towns. What such 
towns as Salisbury and Washington and Winsted are 
doing to introduce nature study, practical mechanics 
and the household arts into their work, is but an index 

C»*3 



COUNTRY LIFE, OLD AND NEW 

of a new type of rural school work that will tend to 
fit the masses for real country life rather than be a step 
toward a classical education, to which only the few will 
ever attain. 

There are two types of country homes, more or less 
common throughout the county. One is represented by 
country estates owned by city men of wealth, who use 
the country mainly as a playground, and whose interest 
in country life and country affairs is generally tempo- 
rary. The other is represented by those farms that 
have come down in the family line through many gener- 
ations and whose owners are trying to perpetuate a 
form of country life that seeks to gain a comfortable 
living from the land, and at the same time to rear and 
educate well a family under wholesome rural conditions. 

The country estates, owned and used as summer 
homes by business men from the cities, may be divided 
into two classes: those occupying large areas whose 
owners are farming on an extensive scale, and those 
occupying limited areas whose owners are interested 
mainly in having a beautiful and restful summer home, 
with land enough to provide a playground and choice 
farm products sufficient to meet the needs of the family. 

Men of wealth in this country are developing a ten- 
dency toward the establishment of a landed aristocracy, 
but at the same time are not adopting the business pol- 
icy in land management that our English cousins are 

["3] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

using. Most of the large farms owned by city men of 
wealth are not managed on a strictly business basis. 
The equipment and the methods employed are not in 
keeping with the farm receipts. The wealthy manu- 
facturer, for example, does not use the same kind of 
business methods on his farm that he does in his shops. 
He does not expect the same degree of efficiency in his 
farm help as he does in his factory help. He often 
looks on the farm as a plaything, as a place to spend 
money, and not to make it. We would not imply that 
there is no place in business farming for the man of 
wealth. He might well show that there is good profit 
on a considerable investment of capital in farming oper- 
ations, but he must adopt the same rigid business meth- 
ods that other lines of business follow. In fact, there 
are now several large farms in the county that are 
being managed on a sound business basis and are 
showing good profit from the investment of consider- 
able capital. 

The other class of country homes, owned by men 
whose business is mainly in the city, is represented by 
those estates that control only limited areas and are 
located in spots chosen for their natural beauty and 
developed with a view to making a pleasant, restful 
country home with land enough to afford the family all 
of the choice farm products that can readily be supplied. 
Such places can make use of nature's abundance to de- 

C"4] 



COUNTRY LIFE, OLD AND NEW 

velop home surroundings of the most charming kind. 
The true lover of nature may surround his home with 
the shrubs and plants, rarer and choicer than any com- 
mercial florist can supply, taken from the wild, and 
often from his own lands. Norfolk affords several such 
homes with houses of simple lines, banked with laurel 
and native rhododendron and with grounds dotted here 
and there with mountain ash, birch and other native 
trees, the whole having a background of native conifers. 
Such homes, nestled among the hills, provide a quiet 
and restful retreat not found on the broad, fertile 
acres of the flat country. 

In general the owners of the second type of country 
homes are descendants of the original settlers. They 
feel an ancestral pride in seeing the farm improve, with 
the idea that it will remain in the family for generations 
to come. In building, they build not alone for the im- 
mediate present but also for future generations. If 
they set out an orchard they do not always expect to 
reap the full rewards of the fruits thereof themselves, 
but live in the hope that future generations will enjoy 
the fruits of their labors. If they make permanenr and 
lasting improvements on a piece of land, they do it with 
the feeling that the next generation will profit from 
their labors fully as much as the one who does the work. 
They are not like the famous politician who, when told 
that he ought to have consideration for the rights of 

c«s3 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

posterity, remarked, "What has posterity ever done for 
me? Let posterity look out for its own rights!" Many, 
however, are like the old farmer whose farm had a 
beautiful setting on the shores of a sparkling lake. He 
was interviewed one day by a millionaire who was flying 
through in his limousine. Pleased with the beauty of 
the place, the millionaire stopped and asked the farmer 
to set a price on his farm. He was promptly told that 
the farm was not for sale. Then, with an impatient 
gesture, the millionaire remarked, "My friend, con- 
sider a minute. A few thousand dollars one way or the 
other makes no difference to me; set your price." But 
the farmer coolly replied, "The farm is not for sale, 
sir I" With a feeling of contempt the lordly millionaire 
tried once more. "But you would not refuse to ex- 
change shining gold for these rough acres and these 
humble dwellings?" "My friend," said the farmer, 
pointing to the weatherbeaten house, "I was born in 
that southwest room from which you can look down 
over that beautiful lake, and there I expect to die. 
Other generations will own this property when I am 
gone. You will have to look elsewhere for your farm." 
And the millionaire sped on in disgust. 

The owners of these ancestral farms are striving not 
only to perpetuate their homes in the family but to keep 
up the standard of the country school and the country 
church. They realize that these institutions are assets 

["6] 



COUNTRY LIFE, OLD AND NEW 

in country life that not only influence the moral tone of 
the community but also affect land values. They do not 
hesitate, when the time comes, to spend a few hundred 
dollars on the higher education that will help their chil- 
dren the better to enjoy life in the country and equip 
them better to cope with the complex farm problems 
that an advanced type of civilization always brings. 

History shows that land ownership by the many 
tends to develop a more general interest in national life 
and public affairs than does the concentration of land 
ownership in the hands of the few. This fact has been 
manifested in our own country in the general response 
from our farm homes for recruits to defend our na- 
tional life in time of war. The farmer is keen to grasp 
the fact that great moral and economic issues in public 
life influence his business as quickly as any business in 
the country. The fact, too, that farming is an industry 
that requires skill and intellectual acumen along many 
lines tends to broaden the farmer, while the division of 
labor required of the workman in many other industries 
tends to narrowness. No class of men to-day is more in- 
dependent in thought and action, on great public ques- 
tions, than farmers of advanced type. This has shown 
itself more strikingly in political life in the past decade 
or two than ever before. Local, State and national issues 
are being studied from the broad viewpoint of public 
good rather than from the narrow one of partisan 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

choice. The farmers have become a reading people, 
and the extension of the parcel post, good roads, village 
and circulating libraries is making this condition more 
and more possible. The general introduction of metro- 
politan daily newspapers into country homes has done 
more to broaden the life of the farmer and to put him 
in touch with great world questions than any other thing 
that has entered into his life. 



n»*3 



CHAPTER X 




COUNTRY COMMUNITY PROGRESS 

HILE it is generally admitted that life in 
the open country tends to develop a phys- 
ically and morally strong people, yet the 
disadvantages of life remote from the 
large centers must not be overlooked. 
Whatever can be done to make country life broader 
and better by making the social and educational advan- 
tages enjoyed by the city more available to the country, 
will tend to a higher civilization. We need a country 
life developed out of its own resources rather than one 
having the unnatural life of the cities engrafted upon it. 
Many country people are making the mistake to-day of 
trying to engraft city customs upon the life of the coun- 
try, while some country people are assuming the role of 
the city "dude," instead of developing a healthy com- 

C«9] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

munity life and a rugged and normal individual life that 
should be the outgrowth of their environment. 

There is a growing tendency, too, among city people 
of liberal means and good intentions to want to do some- 
thing for the betterment of life in the country. Such en- 
deavor, when rightly directed, is to be commended. It 
cannot be done, however, by transferring the city to 
the country. Whatever can be done to make the coun- 
try people see and enjoy the advantages of the country, 
is to be commended. The one thing that country people 
lack is a full realization of what they have to enjoy. 
Country children especially need to be taught how to 
enjoy life in the country and how to see and appreciate 
Nature in her many and varied phases. The boys' and 
girls' club contests in the growing of poultry, vege- 
tables, fruits and flowers will tend to develop a healthy 
rivalry that cannot fail to arouse interest in growing 
things. The Boy Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls are 
forms of wholesome endeavor and recreation that are 
tending to arouse a spirit of self-reliance and an inter- 
est in one's community, as well as to develop a vigorous 
physical life. The country fair, in its rural simplicity, 
such as Norfolk has so well illustrated, is to be com- 
mended and has wholesome recreational and educa- 
tional advantages well worth while. But when the 
cheap side-show and the "midway" are engrafted on the 
country fair, it is likely to be perverted from its 



COUNTRY COMMUNITY PROGRESS 

real function and become an unwholesome, if not a dan- 
gerous, institution. 

This county is rich in historical lore that should be 
perpetuated in the lives of our people. The drama and 
the historical pageant, built on these historic events 
would do more for the social and educational uplift or 
our towns than all the "movies" ever projected An 
historical room in each town for preserving, and for 
exhibiting to the rising generation, samples of the 
household arts and treasures of the past, together 
with the crude and cumbersome farming tools with 
which our fathers labored, would do much to develop 
local pride and interest in local history. 

The circulating library, rightly directed from good 
library centers, has possibilities for good in our rura 
homes, not fully realized. One lack in many rural 
homes is good literature for the children. Every 
school-house might well be made a community center 
for the distribution of wholesome books for young peo- 
ple If rightly chosen, these books could be utilized by 
the teacher to arouse an interest in nature and in coun- 
try life that the prevailing fiction often tends to deaden 
The visiting nurse has come into a few of our rural 
towns as a result of the generous interest in community 
welfare manifested by those who have the means and 
the inclination to help their fellow-citizens to help them- 
selves. This spirit of prompting self-help, through 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

sympathetic encouragement and through suggestions 
for utilizing agencies directly at hand, is the modern 
form of benevolence that is to-day very wisely replacing 
the old form of giving. What is given outright is rarely 
appreciated as much as the opportunity to do for one's 
self, which can be made use of without lessening the 
self-respect of the recipient. If country people can only 
be led to appreciate the value of fresh air, pure water, 
simple, wholesome food and effective sewage disposal, 
through the suggestive teachings of the district nurse, 
it will do more for country welfare than all the direct 
gifts that charity can offer to the country. 

The public school is an institution that is fundamental 
in the life of any free people. A public school system 
that is free to all, at the expense of every one in the 
community, lies at the foundation of our educational 
system. While the public school is a community insti- 
tution, unfortunately it often does not lie within the 
power of the community to shape the policy of the 
school. Our educational system is the outgrowth of an 
age when only the children of the wealthy were sup- 
posed to profit by its advantages. It is based on the 
principle of culture, and this was at first its real function. 
To-day, instead of the few profiting by the schools, they 
are used by the many. Our rural schools must shape 
their work to fit the needs of the rural people. When 
we reflect that less than ten per cent of those who pass 

C1223 



COUNTRY COMMUNITY PROGRESS 

the grades ever enter the high school, or have any fur- 
ther school privileges, we can begin to appreciate the 
importance of a school system that will shape itself to 
the needs of the masses. 

Interest in country life and country affairs can be 
developed best during the formative period of the 
child's life, or between six and fifteen years of age. 
Why should there not be an endeavor made at this age 
to develop interest in the type of life and environment 
that the larger number of country children are sure to 
experience through life? Fortunately, we are begin- 
ning to see our responsibilities and duties in this direc- 
tion and are so modifying our plan of instruction in 
rural schools as to make it fit the life of the people. 
Problems in arithmetic are now drawn more from farm 
life and less from commercial city life. More problems 
are being drawn from the daily business of the farm 
and fewer from the banking house, based on stocks and 
bonds that the child will probably never deal with. 
More historical incidents are drawn from local life and 
the work of our ancestors and less from the succession of 
kings. More interest is being developed in wha*- grows 
under our feet, and less in the products of India or 
Australia. We rejoice to see the community endeavor 
to interest the children of our public schools in garden 
and shop work, in fruits and in flowers, such as has been 
developed in Salisbury and Washington. One value of 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

all such endeavor is that it helps the child to find his 
bent in life; and when interest in some one subject is 
aroused, the child begins to become more interested in 
all other school subjects. 

There is probably no one agency that has done more 
for rural betterment in this county, as well as in the 
State as a whole, than the Grange or Patrons of Hus- 
bandry. While this organization is nearly fifty years 
old, its influence was not widely felt in this State until 
about thirty years ago. The Grange was at first urged 
for its financial advantages in cooperative buying and 
selling, but it was soon seen that it would never be a 
marked success in this line. Later, its educational and 
social features were urged upon the attention of farm- 
ers. As a means of getting the rural people together in 
a social way, it has been well worth the efforts of its 
most loyal supporters. The fact that it has brought 
both sexes into its work has tended to strengthen family 
ties. It brings the farm families together in one big 
community family. In its educational work it has made 
possible the consideration of questions relating to the 
home as well as to the farm. It has afforded opportu- 
nities, to a greater degree than any other agency, for 
the development of men and women from our farms 
who have become useful in public life. 

We are just entering a period of extension work in 
agriculture and home economics that bids fair to do 



COUNTRY COMMUNITY PROGRESS 

more for country people than anything that has come 
into play heretofore. The Smith-Lever Act, recently 
passed by Congress, makes available a fund that is to 
increase year by year, based on the proportion of the 
rural population to the total population. This fund is 
to be used by the State college of agriculture in each 
State, in giving instruction away from the college, and 
is designed to benefit those who are not in position to 
take a course at the college. It is based, however, on 
the cooperative idea; for example, no State can profit 
by the fund, available year by year, unless it matches it 
by a similar appropriation to be used for the same pur- 
poses. 

The Farm Bureau work, now organized in nearly all 
the States, while it antedates the Smith-Lever Act, is 
now operated through the fund provided by that act. 
This movement carries the cooperative idea one step 
further because it requires the people of each county 
that benefits by its privileges to form a part of the co- 
operative plan. The plan is to unite the Federal gov- 
ernment, the State and the county in a joint program 
for the improvement of rural conditions. The move- 
ment contemplates the development in each county of an 
organization to be known as "The Farm Bureau Asso- 
ciation," whose duty it is to foster the work of the Farm 
Bureau by assisting the local manager to deal with the 
rural problems of the county. The local manager or 

[>5: 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

county agent can do little as an individual, on account 
of the magnitude of the work before him. With the 
support and cooperation of a local organization, how- 
ever, he will become acquainted with the needs of the 
people in different sections of the county and can deal 
with groups rather than with individuals. 

One important function of the county agent is to act 
as a clearing house between the people of the county and 
the other cooperating agencies. He is in position to 
make available expert knowledge from the Federal 
Department of Agriculture, the State Department of 
Agriculture, the State Library and the State College. It 
is a part of the general plan to make this work as avail- 
able to the home as it is to the farm proper. Ultimately 
this will be accomplished by placing a woman agent in 
each county, who will assist in solving problems of the 
farm home. Community cooperation will make this 
work available by organizing a small local club to meet 
at the homes of its members, or at the district school- 
house, or some other public building. There is every 
reason why the school buildings, which are built by 
public funds, should become community centers for the 
benefit of all of the people in a community. In this way, 
the schools can be more closely linked with the life of 
the community, and, on the other hand, a greater inter- 
est in the work of the schools will be developed among 
the people. 

C1263 



COUNTRY COMMUNITY PROGRESS 

There is one line of cooperation in which the country 
and the city might get together more fully than has thus 
far been done. The country should be a big play- 
ground for the city. This, however, should be brought 
about without having the city people feel that they have 
the freedom of fields, orchards and groves without re- 
gard to the rights of the owners. Public parks, public 
lakes and public forest areas will make this possible 
without trespassing on private rights. With the sea- 
shore borders now mainly taken up by private owners, 
the general public must look to the lake and hill country 
for a place of recreation. It is as much a function of 
public welfare to provide healthy recreation for our 
people as it is to provide sanitary conditions. Those 
who are deprived of the privileges of play do not know 
how to work. Our larger lake areas, with a strip of 
shore, should be brought under the control of the State 
and be thrown open for public camps, under proper reg- 
ulations, just as are the State forest reserves of the 
Adirondacks. These beauty spots could be developed 
into healthful resorts, at small expense, and be made 
available for those who cannot rent cottages or af- 
ford to go to the summer hotels. 

Litchfield County has available an area of non-agri- 
cultural land that should be developed as a vast public 
playground and forest reserve. In the northwest cor- 
ner of the county, what is known as Mount Riga com- 

[127] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

prises an area, some ten miles long and six miles wide, 
that is admirably adapted for park and forest pur- 
poses. This area includes some of the wildest swamps, 
the most picturesque ravines and the most beautiful 
lakes to be found in New England. 

During the period of high prices for pig iron, be- 
tween 1870 and 1880, most of this area was "coaled 
off," the wood being burned for making charcoal. Since 
that time a good growth of timber has resulted, but sev- 
eral large areas have been devastated by forest fires. 
This whole area might, under proper State manage- 
ment, be made a source of public wealth, as well as a 
public playground. Under proper forest management, 
with lookout posts and fire paths, it would be possible 
to check the damage by fires and keep the forest growth 
in steady progress. By proper thinning, many sections 
could be made to pay the cost of the thinning by the sale 
of wood removed, and the portions left would improve 
rapidly under the better opportunities for sunlight and 
soil fertility. Certain sections already thinned by the 
owner are showing the possibility of a more rapid 
growth, in contrast with other areas not thinned. 

This area is not only available for affording a good 
lesson in forestry, but also for showing the possibility 
of game and fish control under State supervision. No 
area is better situated for breeding both fish and game 
on a large scale, as it affords naturally wild, forest 

[.283 



COUNTRY COMMUNITY PROGRESS 

seclusion, and several lakes and brooks where a variety 
of fish can be allowed to develop in their natural en- 
vironment. 

If we could only develop the large vision that a few 
progressive and public-spirited men are already show- 
ing, we might not only look forward to a vast park 
area in our own county, but hope to see it a part of a 
larger area which would include a section of Massa- 
chusetts and New York, adjoining the Connecticut area. 
Thus might be developed a tri-State park and forest 
reserve unsurpassed in picturesqueness and beauty by 
anything south of the White Mountains. 



[129] 



CHAPTER XI 



A PIONEER IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 




ONNECTICUT was among the first of 
the States to promote agricultural edu- 
cation. Jared Eliot of Killingworth, 
preacher, physician and farmer, wrote 
the first American book on agriculture, 
''Essays upon Field Husbandry," published in 1747. 
Though not the first in the field among the institutions 
of higher education, instruction in agricultural science 
was given continuously at Yale College from 1848, 
when the first Professor of Agricultural Chemistry was 
appointed, down to the early nineties, when the State 
Agricultural College was established at Storrs. 

So in the line of agricultural schools Connecticut was 
a pioneer, as probably the earliest successful farm 
school in this country was the one established by Dr. 



PIONEER IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 

S. W. Gold and his son Theodore. Connecticut, too, 
established the first Agricultural Experiment Station 
in America in 1875. The movement for the establish- 
ment of this institution was promoted by T. S. Gold 
from the first, and when established he was for more 
than twenty years a member of its board of control. 

The Gold estate in Cornwall has now passed into the 
seventh generation in the direct family line, and this fact 
of itself, together with the increasing value of the prop- 
erty, makes the former owner and the farm of more 
than passing interest. The property has been trans- 
mitted in the family line from the Douglas ancestors 
who cleared the land from the forest. In the Gold 
ancestry may be found such names as Talcott, Ruggles, 
Sedgwick, Wadsworth and Cleveland, representing 
strong lines tracing back to colonial days. 

Theodore Sedgwick Gold, the son of a Connecticut 
physician and farmer, was born March 2, 18 18, in 
Madison, New York. While yet in his infancy, his 
parents moved to Goshen in Litchfield County, where 
Theodore spent most of his boyhood. In 1842 his 
father gave up the practice of medicine and removed 
to the ancestral home on Cream Hill, West Cornwall, 
where he and Theodore began illustrious careers as 
agricultural leaders and teachers. 

Graduating from Yale College in 1838, young 
Gold spent the next four years in teaching and study. 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

Part of the time he taught in Eagle Academy, Goshen, 
and part of the time was spent in scientific studies at 
Yale. In 1845 ne an d his father opened an agricultural 
school on the home farm in West Cornwall. This 
school was continued for twenty-four years and num- 
bered among its scholars some of the notable men of the 
country. Mr. Gold was always interested in the natural 
sciences and took up special studies in these subjects at 
college, and what he learned from his father, coupled 
with a wide love of nature, fitted him especially as an 
instructor in subjects that had a particular bearing on 
agriculture. His house, throughout his life, contained 
an interesting collection of specimens of minerals and 
plants of his own collecting. There was hardly a plant 
growing on his large estate with which he was not fa- 
miliar. His garden, too, was always a testing ground 
for new fruits, herbs and vegetables that might be of 
interest or of value. 

The school was not managed simply as a training 
school for the farm, but provided that all-round train- 
ing sure to be useful in any walk of life. Many of 
the students went to college and later became men of 
prominence in business and professional life. Manual 
labor was not a requirement, but Mr. Gold always 
spent a part of each day working on the farm, and the 
boys delighted to accompany him and to listen to his 
wise counsel and his practical explanations. 



PIONEER IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 

Perhaps without an exception, those who knew Mr. 
Gold best will agree that his greatest achievement was 
as secretary and official executive of the Connecticut 
State Board of Agriculture. Though not the first board 
of its kind in New England, it has had an almost con- 
tinuous and a very useful career for a period of fifty 
years. From the time of its establishment in 1866 for 
more than thirty years, Mr. Gold was its secretary and 
the guiding force that shaped its policies. The reports 
of this board were, for many years, sought by students 
of agriculture in all parts of the country, as a source of 
many of the latest teachings in the science of agricul- 
ture. The speakers at the board meetings, whose ad- 
dresses were published in full, stood forth as exponents 
of the new science of agriculture. Mr. Gold's work, as 
secretary of this board, was the chief factor in leading 
farmers of the State to accept the new teachings in rela- 
tion to agriculture, which at first were regarded with 
suspicion or indifference, but which are now accepted 
and used by nearly all farmers. 

The winter meeting of the board was for many years 
the chief agricultural event of the year in the State. 
The program, thoughtfully and logically arranged, 
gave the audience the best knowledge and thought on 
scientific and practical farming and home-making. It 
was characteristic of these meetings that, each year, one 
leading theme ran through the whole program. One 

C r 33] 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

year it was soil fertility, another dairying, again dairy- 
farm crops, and again animal or plant diseases. 
Enough other interesting and useful material was in- 
corporated to hold the attention of those not interested 
in the chief line of discussion, but at the same time the 
concentration was on one chief theme. One feature, 
which was new to early agricultural conventions, was 
always incorporated and adhered to by Mr. Gold in his 
programs. That was to have at least one address by a 
lady speaker of state or national reputation, and to do 
everything possible to interest the women from the 
farms in the meetings of the board. 

One who knew Mr. Gold and his work for the Board 
of Agriculture intimately for many years, says of his 
work as secretary: "With all credit to the speakers and 
to the wisdom of Mr. Gold's associates, I believe the 
chief credit for all the work of the board belongs to 
him. He was the executive of the board and he had all 
the qualities which a secretary needed: thorough educa- 
tion, intimate farm knowledge, success as a farmer, 
wide personal acquaintance and great self-control and 
tact." 

Mr. Gold was always interested in forestry. The 
exhibit of natural woods — sections of tree trunks with 
the top cut so as to show a sloping section, a vertical 
section and a transverse section — collected and pre- 
pared at his instigation for the Columbian Exposition 

C1343 



PIONEER IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 

in 1893, was one of the most complete shown at Chi- 
cago. Many of the specimens came from his own farm. 
Mr. Gold knew every variety of tree that was native to 
the State, and so knew where to direct the collecting if 
he did not have the tree on his own farm. He was in- 
strumental in getting the present forest laws of Con- 
necticut passed, and was interested in promoting the 
forestry work of the State Forestry Association and 
the forestry investigations of the State Experiment Sta- 
tion. 

During his life of over four-score years he was al- 
ways interested in developing a farm that would pay a 
profit and at the same time leave, for the use of the suc- 
ceeding generations, a soil that was not depleted in 
fertility. All of his improvements were made with a 
view to permanency. More than fifty years ago many 
stone drains were laid that are still doing good work. 

Mr. Gold did not hesitate to diverge from the usual 
system of farming if he felt he had a plan that better 
fitted his farm. I well remember the incredulity shown 
by some of the audience when he stated at one of the 
Board of Agriculture meetings that he had fields on his 
farm that had not been plowed for over one hundred 
years, but had been mowed annually during that entire 
time. On visiting his farm and observing the con- 
ditions and the methods used, I was at once struck with 
the wisdom of the system. The fields in question were 

['353 



RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 

naturally well supplied with moisture, and consisted of 
a hard clay loam soil rather difficult to plow but well 
adapted to grass and clover. In keeping these meadows 
productive Mr. Gold adopted the plan of liberal top- 
dressing with stable manure and the sowing of clover 
seed, either every year or every second year early in the 
spring, when it would get a start without being incor- 
porated with the soil. While the yields of hay obtained 
under this system were not especially heavy, they were 
always good and the labor economy of the system made 
the cost of hay less than on many farms that produced 
much more to the acre, but at the same time required 
reseeding every few years. 

While Mr. Gold was interested in diversified farm- 
ing, his most prominent work was in fruit culture, 
mainly apple orcharding. From the earliest days of 
the introduction of new fruits, he was interested in 
testing and growing whatever would add to the comfort 
and health of the family. In fact, this was true of all 
lines of products. I never visited a farm home where 
more of the food products of the table were supplied 
from the farm, and always in great variety. For exam- 
ple, one would not look for hot-house grapes of the 
European varieties in Connecticut except on a few pri- 
vate estates of men of considerable wealth, and yet, 
more than sixty years ago, Mr. Gold grew these for 
home consumption. So with pears, peaches, plums, 

D363 



PIONEER IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 

gooseberries and strawberries, the needs of the family 
were always considered and supplied as far as climatic 
conditions for the culture of the fruits would permit. 

At the present time (191 7) there are commercial 
orchards on the Gold farm, ranging in age from forty 
to less than six years. Not more than ten years prior to 
Mr. Gold's death he was interested with his son in 
planting an orchard of the latest commercial varieties. 

Mr. Gold, no doubt, inherited a great love for fruits. 
Nearly one hundred and fifty years before his death his 
ancestors planted an orchard on Cream Hill, the story 
of which he tells in his ''Reminiscences," published in 
1901 : 

"As for fruits, there were few grafted or budded 
trees at the beginning of the century. I have a single 
tree, a Seeknofurther, grafted near the ground, the last 
survivor of an orchard which, according to tradition, 
was planted by my great-grandmother, Sarah (Doug- 
las) Wadsworth, in her early married life, about 1760. 

"It has battled with the storms of more than a cen- 
tury, but in its decadence shows much vigor and bears 
choice fruit, which the sixth generation enjoys. 

"Who would not plant a tree with such possibilities?" 



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